Down the Rabbit Hole
by Sparky1368
Summary: Junior's always remained neutral, and as a result so has Ruby. But when Ruby is drawn into a game of intrigue that could decide the fate of not just Vale but all of the Kingdoms of Remnant, it will be up to her to decide which side she's on because she could be the piece that decides who wins the biggest game of chess ever played.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 _Warning: Incoming call from a moron...Warning: Incoming call from a mor-_

Her hand snapped out and grabbed her scroll off the bed. She sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and answered her scroll, her sheets pooling around her waist, "What's up Junior? It's like…" She glanced at the clock, "...3 in the morning."

" _I need you to go pick up a client for me at the airport…"_

* * *

"Would you like a glass of champagne ma'am?"

Cinder didn't pause in her tapping or look away from the plane window before answering, "No, I'm fine."

"Okay, ma'am if you…"

Cinder tuned her out once again, this being the umpteenth time they had had this exchange on this flight alone. Her mind provided a poor imitation of exactly what the airline attendant was saying, _if you need anything, anything at all, just let me know._ By Dust and Grimm, she hated flying on commercial airlines.

* * *

Her bare feet made little noise as she padded over to her closet and started going through her suits, her scroll pinned between her head and her shoulder as she did so, "The usual or indiscreet?"

" _Better go with the usual otherwise she's likely to be very unhappy with us."_

"Is this an under or an over client?"

" _Under, definitely under. She's about as far under, as they get."_

She slid all of the white suits to her left and grabbed one of her black ones.

* * *

" _Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to start our final descent. Please ensure that your seats and trays are in their original upright positions and all carry-on luggage is..."_

Cinder slammed her head against her headrest several times, _Why? Why did I feel relieved when I got on this plane?_

* * *

" _...So then Melanie, whose dress is now stained by the wine, kicks the poor man in the nether region. Meanwhile Miltia is..._

She fixed her tie one last time, checked her cufflinks, straightened her jacket, and grabbed her scroll off of her dresser. Turning it off of speaker scroll, she returned it to her ear, "Alright, you can shut up about Melanie and Miltia, I'm decent."

" _Oh thank the Hunters. I don't think I'll ever understand your refusal to talk while you get dressed."_

"Ah, but you see, Junior, if you look, and you don't even have to look closely, there is a big difference between how I look and how you look. I look crisp, clean, and professional. You, well, you look like...you."

" _You wound me!"_

She chuckled, knowing that even without her there to see it, he was likely to be pantomiming fainting like a damsel in distress, "I was trying to, Junior, that was the point."

" _Haha, you think you're oh so funny, don't you?"_

"I don't think, I know. What time is the plane landing, and is this a simple chauffeur job, or a chauffeur slash bodyguard job?"

" _The plane is landing at 4:30,"_ So she needed to be there by 5 " _and the truth is, it's neither."_

For the first time since waking up, she stopped all movement. When she spoke next it was with a low growl, "Junior, what in Remnant, did you sign me up for?"

" _Oh...um...uh...well, you see, she needed a place to stay, and….refused to stay in a hotel...so since I was going to have you be her chauffeur and bodyguard while she was here...Iwasgoingtohaveherstaywithyou."_ The last bit of his statement was said in a rush, and she knew him well enough that it was probably followed by him taking one last big intake of air, holding his breath, tightening his grip on his scroll, scrunching his eyes shut,wrinkling his nose and raising his upper lip, as the rest of his body tensed up as if preparing to be hit. The mental image was almost enough to distract her from her anger towards him...key word, almost.

"Mother of a flapjack, Junior. Really? You could have at least talked to me first."

" _There wasn't anytime! Honest!"_

"Junior, the nearest airport by flight time is 4 hours away. It's just now 3:22. I know you didn't talk to her while she was on the plane if she's flying commercial in order to keep a low profile, so the more likely situation is that you forgot. Now, tell me Junior, did you forget?"

" _Yes. I did."_ She could hear the pout present in his voice.

"It's fine, Junior. Just...a little forewarning would be nice next time, okay?"

" _You got it!"_ The change in attitude was quick enough to give one whiplash, but then again, she'd known Junior long enough that she was use to it.

She snagged a set of keys from their hook by the door to the garage, and stepped through the door, "Why did you get me up so early anyways, Junior? It's only like a fifteen minute drive to the airport from where I'm currently at."

" _Yeah...that's the thing...I kinda figured that since you were already out and about this morning that I would have you stop and pay someone a visit on the way."_

"I hate you, you know that?"

" _I know."_ And there was the pout again.

* * *

Cinder strode through jetbridge, the index finger on her right hand occasionally twitching as she tried to keep her urge to take out her frustration at flying commercially by burning those around her to a crisp like she'd been taught to do to her subordinates. Now she just needed to get through Customs, get her...wait Customs. The twitching of her index finger increased dramatically. She really, _really_ hated flying commercial.

* * *

 **3:53**

She glanced at the radio clock and cursed. She had roughly ten more minutes until she would get to her first stop, giving her roughly seventeen minutes to finish her business there, and still make the forty minute drive to the airport and pick up the client. Junior was going to owe her a big one for this.

* * *

The twitching had rapidly progressed to her clenching and unclenching her fist as Cinder dealt with Customs. Of course, they couldn't make anything simple. No, they had to make everything complicated. Now, now she remembered why she had been relieved to get on the plane because the actual airport was much worse than the flight could have ever been, literally. If the plane had crashed and she'd survived only to burn alive in the wreckage it would still have been preferable to having to deal with an airport and the people within it.

Junior was going to owe her a big favor for making her travel this way.

* * *

 **4:07**

After getting off the scroll with Junior, she'd been annoyed. Now she was pissed. She'd got here on time that was great, that improved her mood, and then the universe decided to conspire against her.

First the door was locked which everyone knew was a no-no when you owed Junior cash for a favor or job. That had slowed her a good 30 seconds because she'd had to pick both the deadbolt and the regular door handle. Once she had that open, she entered to find herself in a foyer. The foyer was decorated with a couple plants on each side of the door she'd entered through, a crystal chandelier above lighting the room, doors to the right and left, and a table against the wall across from the door. On the floor in front of the table was a frond, likely placed there by the two asshats sitting on either side of the table playing cards while they were supposed to be on guard.

After following protocol and trying to talk to them and convince them that she just wanted to talk to their boss, a slight scuffle had occurred resulting in one of the idiots having his kneecap kicked in and a knife buried in his throat, and the other being shot in the heart.

Now after navigating through both the dining room attached to the foyer, and a hallway she was heading upstairs towards what was likely another room with guards. She reached the second-story landing and walked towards the door. Using her Semblance to give her leg an increased durability and a greater speed with which to kick thereby exponentially increasing the force of her kick, she kicked the door. The door was not only kicked open, but ripped off the hinges and sent flying into the room. Without stopping, even for the kick, she briskly walked into the room and surveyed the layout.

There were three guards sitting around a table ahead and to her left playing what appeared, at first glance, to be Remnant: The Game with one chair empty. One guard was exiting what appeared to be a small kitchen area holding a bag of popcorn, presumably to return to the game, and the last one was sitting to her right on a couch watching TV. Her first three rounds silently eliminated the three at the table before they were able to figure out why the door had suddenly exploded off of its hinges and about five feet into the room, the fourth round splattered the guard on the couch's brains across the TV before he could finish drawing his weapon. The fifth guard appeared to be faster thinking than the other four because in the four and a half seconds she took to eliminate his comrades he'd dropped his bag of popcorn, and taken cover behind the counter separating the kitchen from the living room of the kitchen/living room/bedroom combo.

 _Note to self; being the quickest thinker doesn't necessarily equate to being intelligent._

She fired at the exposed shin sticking out from the edge of the counter. The last guard screamed, dropped his gun, and grabbed at his shin. When he did so she took the created opportunity and shot him in the temple. All of this she did without stopping her forward momentum, until she stepped over the the guard who had been carrying the popcorn and had mentally labelled Orville and came even with the table holding the board game.

After pausing for a second she strode over and looked at the placement of the troops on the board, moved some of the pieces and nodded, "And Vale wins, it's actually kind of sad, he was so close to winning."

Performing an about face she walked over to the door, and tried opening it and... of course it was locked.

"If I have to unlock this door because you refuse to do so, the following conversation is going to go much worse for you." She paused and listened, a few seconds later she heard some quick shuffling, followed by the lock clicking, and some more shuffling.

She ejected the almost empty magazine in her pistol, placed it in an empty pocket on the inside of her suit jacket designed just for that, loaded a new one, and then holstered her pistol in its underarm holster. Then she fixed her jacket and opened the door.

"Now, Mr. Haskins, we need to have a small talk about some funds you owe Junior and I. Then we're going to have another talk about why the front door was locked, and two idiots were playing cards on the other side of it…"

* * *

 _Not my bag. Not my bag. I swear that if they sent my bag to Vacuo that I'm going to go ballistic. Not my bag. Not my bag. I'm going to kill Junior. Finally! My bag! Or...not. Yeah, Junior is definitely a deadman. Oh thank the huntresses, it's my bag._

Cinder grabbed her bag from the baggage claim area and started walking towards the airport exits. She pulled out her scroll and dialed Junior, "Junior, Junior, Junior, I hate you. Did you know that?"

" _It's actually kind of funny you said that. That's the second time I've heard a woman tell me that this morning in just as many hours."_

"I really don't need details on your sad, sad, love life."

" _Gaah! Love life? Love life? Who said anything about my love life? I think I'm going to be sick."_

Cinder held her scroll away from her ear and stared at it with a furrowed brow until the sounds of Junior's vomiting ended, "Are you finished now? Back to business. Where's my driver?"

" _I-just one second-George! George! Get someone to clean this up but first bring me a glass and a bottle of Everclear. I need to clean my mouth of this taste and my memory of that horrible insinuation. Thank you. Now Cinder, I-you know, what? No, I'm not going there. The driver I assigned said she would be there at five, so she'll be there at five. No sooner. No later. Just head out front and meet her at the pickup zone. I'm gonna go get blitzed and forget this conversation ever happened. My love life? Yeck!"_ Junior hung up still muttering to himself.

Cinder pocketed her scroll and shook her head, "I'll never understand how that man became the city's leading information broker."

* * *

 **4:55**

She glanced at the clock, picked out a landmark to gauge where exactly she was, calculated how long it would take to get to the airport at her current speed, and started pressing down on the Dust pedal more. She had a reputation to keep and Haskins, Junior, and all the other things she'd had to deal with this morning weren't going to stop her from doing that.

* * *

Cinder glanced at her scroll as she shouldered the door open and watched as the time ticked from 4:59 to 5:00, "I guess Junior was wro…" She trailed off after looking up and seeing a sleek black two door car that hadn't been there a second ago. She started walking toward the car and watched as her driver got out and walked around the car.

Her driver was roughly her age maybe a couple years younger, so somewhere between 18-20. _Is Junior hiring them from the cradle now?_ She had dark red almost black hair that lightened to crimson at the tips. She also had silver eyes and was a little taller than Cinder, standing somewhere around six feet tall. She was wearing a suit consisting of a black suit jacket, a black vest, a black tie, black pants, and black dress shoes. This was accompanied by a dark red shirt, cufflinks in the shape of a rose in bloom, and a red rose and red pocket square in her breast pocket.

Her driver went to open the passenger door for Cinder and stopped when something Cinder couldn't see in the early morning light caught her attention and caused her to purse her lips, "One moment please."

The driver stepped past Cinder, walked to the back of the car, took out the rose and pocket square, and removed her cufflinks and suit jacket. With the jacket draped over her left arm, and the other items in her left hand, she grabbed a briefcase out of the trunk, walked to the side of her car, and placed the case on the roof. After opening it, she pulled out what appeared to be an identical suit jacket, and placed it on the roof of the car. She then carefully placed the jacket she had been wearing in the briefcase, and returned the case to the trunk. Following this she put the new jacket back on, and returned her things to their proper place on her jacket.

It was at this point that she turned her attention to Cinder once again, who'd been merely watching the entire time, and gave Cinder one of the happiest and yet sheepish smiles that Cinder had ever seen.

"Please pardon me. Prior to picking you up, I had to pay a visit to someone who decided they weren't going to pay Junior what they owed him. I thought I had managed to escape unscathed, but it turns out that wasn't so. It was more than likely the idiot that I had to stab in the throat in the foyer whose blood wound up ruining one of my favorite jackets." The driver stepped to her left and opened the passenger side door. "My name is Ruby Rose. I will be your driver, bodyguard, and flatmate during your stay here. Welcome to Vale."

 ** A/N: Well this is the first story that I'm putting online. The idea for this story came to me while reading Xekstrin's Chained Rose on Archive of Our Own. Past this point the entire story will be based upon my own ideas. Review if you want. It'd be much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed, until next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **A/N: Welcome back, if you're a returning reader. If you're not a returning reader, welcome to you too- Wait, a second! If this is you're first time reading a chapter in Down the Rabbit Hole, you're in the wrong place! Shoo! Back to the prologue with you!**

 **I apologize if I seemed...kinda sorta d**kish in the A/N of the prologue but I had been trying to psych my self up for a good 3-4 hours to actually press the button to publish the story prior to actually publishing it and that was after I kept putting off writing it, and then wasted time editing it, suffice it to say, I had literally zero nerves left.**

 **I forgot to put this at the beginning of the prologue but oh well. I do not own RWBY, the plot of RWBY, or the characters within it, that's all Roosterteeth. Well, story ho! No George, I wasn't calling you.**

* * *

Ruby started pulling away, and Cinder looked over at her, "Shouldn't you be asking where I need to go?"

The redhead shrugged and turned left out of the airport onto the road, "No point in waiting around the airport where anyone who knew you were coming in by plane could be lying in wait. Not to mention most unders who come into Vale and hire a driver from Junior, first go to the bar to get the lay of the figurative land from him. Then there's the fact that with the way I'm going we can reach anywhere in Vale."

Cinder nodded, and hummed in reply before turning her attention to the passing view outside of the blacked out window, "Normally you would be right that I would go and see Junior first but there's the small problem that after our conversation he's likely not in any condition to see me," She turned her attention back to Ruby and placed a hand on Ruby's forearm using the dust sewn into the cloth that crossed her palm to heat up the suit under her hand, "And remember, I hired you to drive me around and keep me safe. I did _not_ hire you to think. I order, you obey."

Ruby pulled over to the side of the road, and turned to look at Cinder, "Did you just try to burn me? Seriously? Firstly, I was in the middle of driving at eighty miles an hour, how stupid are you?" This question seemed to ruffle Cinder, like she wasn't used to someone insulting her and conjured an image of a cat with it's fur raised in Ruby's mind. "Secondly you did not hire me to do cookies or milk, I took this job as a personal favor to Junior, I don't need your money, and I won't take any more of your schiznizz, m'kay? I will kick you out of my car, and leave you on the side of the road. Thirdly, Junior asked me to be your driver, bodyguard, and let you stay in one of my apartments while you were here. He did not ask me to be your servant, or your mindless slave, if you wanted that you should have hired a limo driver. I will do as I see fit to ensure that I complete my job to the best of my abilities. As far as I am concerned, especially since we will be sharing a living space. We are equals in this very, _very_ temporary relationship of ours. Lastly don't try to injure me in any way whatsoever. I am trained in how to use both my aura and semblance as well as various weapons and will defend myself. This morning alone, I killed seven men. Adding your name to what is already a very long list won't bother me one bit." Ruby turned back forward to pull out again when she saw the state her jacket arm was in, "Dust and Grimm, you ruined another one of my jackets – oh look and a shirt as well – Pierce is going to murder me when I go in to get these replaced."

Ruby continued muttering to herself as she pulled out onto the road and started heading to one of her apartments. She saw Cinder return her gaze to looking out the window out of the corner of her eye. It was silent for several moments, Ruby figured Cinder was trying to cope with having someone talk back to her for probably the first time in her life, before Cinder spoke again, "You called me an under, what did you mean?"

Ruby raised her eyebrows, and turned her head slightly in Cinder's direction while keeping her eyes on the road, "Hmm?"

Cinder rolled her eyes and clenched her fist for a second before unclenching it, "You. Called me. An under. What did you mean?"

Ruby shook her head and responded, "Oh. An under is part of Junior and I's lingo. We use it to make conversation quicker. An under is someone whose business is tied mainly with the underworld. Thieves, assassins, gangs, people like you," Her eyes darted towards Cinder at that, "are all examples of unders. An over is someone who is mostly legitimate. Business owners, rich people, hunters, those kinds of things, they're all overs. What's your name by the way?"

"You don't know my name? Junior didn't tell you?"

"No, he kind of sent me to you at the last minute, and we never mention a client's name unless we're face to face with each other. I found you because you give off mad amounts of Under Vibes, and matched the description Junior gave me. By the way, what did you mean that Junior wouldn't be in any condition to help you right now? I got off the phone with him at like 3:30 and he was fine."

Cinder blithely waved her hand at Ruby before replying, "Since we'll be stuck with each other for the next little while and will likely have many dealings with each other in the future, my real name is Cinder Fall. On the topic of Junior, I told him I hated him, he said something about some other woman telling him that she hated him shortly before I did. I replied that I didn't need to know the details of his sordid love life and he – are you okay?" Ruby had started gagging as Cinder recounted her tale.

Ruby waved Cinder off and returned her full attention to the road, "Yeah, I just – I was the one that had told him that I hated him, and the idea of the two of us in a relationship is just..." Ruby shuddered. "Anyways let me guess, he said that he was going to, and I'm probably quoting him here, 'get blitzed and forget this conversation ever happened'?"

Cinder nodded, "Yeah, something like that. Now, where are you taking me?"

Ruby smiled sheepishly, "Oh! To one of my apartments. I figured since Junior's not in any shape to help, we could go to one of my places and I could try and help you, Junior may be the face of the business but I know almost as much as he does, if nothing else we could both get some more sleep."

Cinder continued staring out the window, "Mm-hmm."

Ruby sighed. _You owe me Junior, like a years worth of cookies and milk, owe me._

* * *

Ruby pushed open the door to her apartment and walked through it, hanging her keys on the hook by the door as she did so. About five feet in from the door, she spun around and raised her arms gesturing at the apartment, "Well, this is it. Actually...it's not. Junior and I own this building so...the apartment under this one is my workshop, and the one above this one is a workout room. Then there are the other apartments that I have scattered around the city."

Cinder stepped in and looked around, "For someone who has several apartments, this one seems... pretty lived in."

Ruby smiled and rubbed the back of her head, slightly embarrassed but unsure why, "Well this is the one that I used to stay in all the time but somewhere around the second or third time I had someone track me down and try to kill me here, I decided that I needed to make where I slept a little more random..."

 _Oh no!_ Ruby's eyes widened and flitted from the offending article lying on the back of the couch, that her subconscious had been trying to warn her about, to Cinder, who was smirking at her, and back again. Smiling innocently, Ruby sidestepped and grabbed the bra off the back of her couch.

Trying – unsuccessfully – to hide it behind her back – one of the ends was dragging on the floor behind her, visible between her legs – Ruby started walking backwards towards her bedroom, "Sooo, you just get settled in. Your room is over there," She pointed towards a door across the apartment from hers, and next to the stairs up to Ruby's workout room, "The kitchen is over there, clearly," She pointed towards the kitchen, which was visible over the counter as she stepped into her room, "There's a bathroom in your room. Just... make yourself comfortable and I'll be right out," By this point Ruby had backed far enough into her room that only her head was sticking out the door and that only was because she was leaning over. Ruby slammed her bedroom door closed and pressed her back against it.

"Dust and Grimm, that was embarrassing." Ruby said holding her head in her hands, that was until she realized that she was also still holding her bra in her hand, and promptly threw it away from her, "Gaah!"

Shaking her head to clear it, Ruby shucked off her jacket, vest, and shirt after removing her various pieces that were within them, cufflinks, rose, pocket square, handgun and its accompanying magazines, and placed the jacket and vest on a hanger that she set in the bin designated just for destroyed clothes and her pants quickly followed, _Might as well get a whole new suit,_ she thought to herself, _it might make Pierce go a little more lenient on me...or more angry, oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it._ Placing her shoes in the closet, Ruby selected her favorite pair of pajamas, a black tanktop with a heart on it and white pajama pants with pink dots on them, and put them on. Shaking her head once more, she padded out of her room, and back into the living room, "Sorry, Cinder. Had I known I was going to have guests here I would have made sure to clean up but last night I was sleeping in one of my safehouses on the east...side of...Vale? Cinder? Where are you?"

"I'm in my room, getting unpacked." The older woman sauntered out of her room and cocked an eyebrow at Ruby, "Getting awfully familiar, aren't we?"

Ruby looked down at herself, and then back at Cinder and shrugged, "We'll be seeing each other quite a bit and living in close quarters with one another for however long you're here. We'll probably see each other in much more compromising situations than this, not to mention, you just saw one of my bras lying over the back of the couch. I'm not sure it can get any worse."

Cinder pressed her lips together and gave – what sounded to Ruby at least – an unhappy hum in reply, "Now, you said you could help me get an idea of the current situation here in Vale?"

Ruby nodded vigorously while pointing over her shoulder and smiling, "Yeah, I can. Just let me go grab my scroll, and I'll see what I can pull up for you."

Ruby jogged into her room, grabbed her scroll, and jogged back out into the living room to find Cinder still standing where Ruby had left her. "Please sit down, no need to be a stranger. Well, I mean, you are still, kinda, sorta a stranger but there's no need for you to be uncomfortable and stand the entire time."

"And where am I expected to sit, pray tell?"

"Well on the couch of...course. Yeah, I see the problem now." Ruby looked around and saw the apartment as a stranger would for the first time. There was two doors on the wall to the right of the entrance. The closest one was a closet and the furthest one was the door to Ruby's room. Between the two rooms was an entertainment system holding a 40" television and various other electronics from game systems to an old DVD player and even a VCR. A short distance away from there was a coffee table with a couch on the side opposite the TV and entertainment system, and an armchair on the same side of the table that the wall the entrance was on. Just past Ruby's bedroom door the wall turned into a hallway that led to a bathroom. The part of the apartment across from the door in contained the kitchen and Ruby's computer/research area which also had a window overlooking the park. To the left of the door into the apartment was several mostly empty bookcases and a dining room table surrounded by six chairs. A few feet past the last bookcase was the last door to Cinder's room, and a little bit further in was the spiral staircase that led to Ruby's workshop and workout room.

None of that was an issue though, no, the issue was that the reason the bookcases were mostly empty was that the books, textbooks and various weapon, car, and technology magazines that belonged in them were scattered across every possible sitting space and flat space in the apartment but the bookcases.

Ruby quickly scurried over and cleaned off the couch, armchair and table by picking things up in large armfuls and dumping it in a pile next to whatever they were on respectively. Ruby gestured to the couch and bade Cinder to sit while Ruby sat on the stool and plugged her scroll into a port on the table, causing it to light up and create an interactive holographic projection of two files above it. One of the files was labeled Over and the other was labeled Under. Ruby selected the one labeled Under, subsequently pulling up several more files, "Alright, what are you looking for?"

"For now, I'm just looking for cheap muscle, and lots of it, and someone I can leave in charge of them and trust to make sure the job gets done."

Ruby nodded and, after navigating through several directories, pulled up several profiles. The first showed a man and a woman. Both had slightly atlesian features, with brown hair, blue eyes, fair skin, large noses, full jaws, broad shoulders, and looked alike enough to clearly be brother and sister, "First up, we have Hans and Gerda. They grew up in the capital of Atlas. They turned to a life of crime after their mother became ill and they couldn't afford her medical bills. After her death they seemed to snap, and started performing crimes full time. Their crimes tend to be as noticeable and cause as much death and destruction as they possibly can. If you don't care if they're discreet or not, and don't care about a body count, you could probably convince them to do it for free so long as you promise them plenty of violence and destruction."

Ruby pulled up the next profile, which contained a picture of a female bear faunus with green eyes and honey-blonde hair, "This is Little Bear. Junior and I know her real name, as well as several other things about her that are only available to people willing to pay an exorbitant sum. Suffice it to say, she's extremely effective, and has managed to stay off of the radar of anyone on the right side of the law. The issue with her though is that she's highly expensive to hire, and as soon as you ask her to do anything that goes against her, rather strict, moral code, or try to intimidate her in someway she'll take the money you gave her, sabotage as much of your operation as she can and disappear. And no, neither Junior nor I will help you find her if it comes to that. We both really like her as a friend and owe her more than a couple favors."

She pulled up the last profile that showed a man with orange hair and green eyes, who was wearing black eyeliner, and a black bowler hat with a red band, and smoking a cigar, "Lastly, we have Roman Torchwick. He's been a good friend to Junior and I even if I do bicker with him constantly. Professionally, I respect him. He started out with a bang, his first job was robbing the a series of five big banks all within the same day. Roman has made a habit of successfully pulling off jobs with inadequate underlings that anyone else would likely fail to complete. The police are on the lookout for him, but this is mainly because he likes to make a show of himself, and unlike Hans and Gerda he has yet to actually come close to being caught. He's an excellent planner and able to improvise well under pressure, he also comes at a reasonable price, he won't talk even if he does get caught, and his pride would never allow him to leave a job unfinished or done poorly if he can help it. There's also the added benefit that with Roman comes his shadow Neopolitan." She scrolled down and brought into view a gif of a girl with pink and brown hair and who's eyes switched between pink, brown, and white. "No one is quite sure what he did but somehow Roman gained the loyalty of the deadliest, short, and mute, sociopath in all of Vale."

Ruby yawned and stretched, "Alright I'm going to sleep now, I only got like two hours of sleep last night, and I'm tired. Give me your scroll," Cinder did so after a moment's thought, "and I'll send you the profiles that give out for free on people for hire and cheap muscle. There are more people than I showed you up for hire around the town but those are the three that I would recommend. You can keep looking over them if you want, you're welcome to sleep if you want to, or do whatever else you want around the apartment. Don't try to get on my computer, I'll know if you do, don't enter my room, and finally don't leave the apartment. Other than that you're fine, I'll probably be up at...," she checked the clock, "...around twelve, since it's just now becoming six. After I get up, we can go see Junior at his club, and anywhere else you might need to go." After doing as she said she would, Ruby stood up and slowly walked over to her bedroom door. When she reached it she looked over her shoulder at Cinder, and waved one last time at Cinder, who was looking through the files that Ruby had sent her, "G'night Cinder, or would it be good morning? On one hand I'm going to sleep, but on the other it's six in the morning – oh, you know what I meant. I'm gonna head to bed before I start rambling some more."

* * *

Ruby bolted upright, and wrinkled her nose trying to figure out what she was smelling, when her eyes widened and a cheesy grin appeared on her face. Jumping out of bed, Ruby rushed out to the living room and from there to the kitchen. Once she reached the doorway to the kitchen, she tried to lean against the doorway and appear nonchalant as she watched Cinder cooking, "So...you're cooking us breakfast?"

Cinder looked up at Ruby briefly before looking back down at where she was preparing an omelet, "No, I'm cooking _my_ breakfast. And for your information, if you're going to try to appear nonchalant, you should really make sure you aren't still wearing your pajamas, and if you do try to do it in pajamas, make sure your top isn't ridden halfway up your stomach."

Grumbling to herself about gluttonous roommates not sharing the meals that they made with _her_ food and _her_ kitchen, she turned and headed back to her room. At least, she started to before she saw what Cinder had done, and stopped in her tracks. Whereas last night, every sitting place and flat spot in the apartment had been covered in haphazardly created piles of literature, now the apartment was spotless, and from what Ruby could see from where she was, all of the books and magazines were carefully organized by type of literature, whether book, texbook, or magazine, and from there into subject, and since it was that organized Ruby wouldn't be surprised if Cinder had then put them in alphabetical order.

Ruby heard Cinder step out of the kitchen and saw Cinder stop beside her out of the corner of her eye, "I was going through those files you gave me and finally got fed up being in such a...chaotic and disorganized living space that I decided to straighten everything up for you." Out of the corner of Ruby's eye she saw Cinder take a bite of her omelet.

"Disorganized?! It wasn't disorganized! It was a carefully orchestrated anarchy, where everything had it's place, and I knew where that place was! I mean, sure, _sometimes_ I had to look for stuff, and _sometimes_ , the void under the couch would eat something but other than that it was a perfect example of organized chaos! Now that I think about it, did you by any chance find a cat while you were cleaning? I haven't seen Mr. Snuggles since the day before yesterday."

"No, I didn't see _Mr. Snuggles_. Go get dressed, we have places to be."

Ruby padded off to her room, muttering about gluttonous _and_ bossy roommates and traitorous cats that were probably mooching off of the old lady her lived two apartments below, and who she probably wouldn't see again until it wanted back in off of the fire escape.

* * *

Ruby parked her car outside of Junior's club and got out, while Cinder did the same on her side of the car. "Knowing Junior, he's probably upstairs in his apartment, nursing a massive hangover," Ruby said as the two of them entered the club. After entering Ruby headed straight to the back of the club, where the stairs up were hidden, saying hello to everyone she knew on the way there...which was just about everyone.

As she went up the stairs, Ruby made sure Cinder was still behind her, "Most people aren't allowed up here but since Junior sicced you upon me at what was almost the last minute, he can get over it."

Ruby placed her thumb on the scanner beside the door at the top of the stairs. As soon as the light on the scanner turned green, Ruby pushed open the door and strode in, "JUNIOR! MY BUDDY! MY PAL! How are you this fine afternoon!"

Junior sat up on the couch he was sitting on, clutching his head between his hands, "Please Ruby, don't be so _loud_."

Ruby pulled off her suit jacket and placed it on the back of one of the chairs in the living room as she headed to the kitchen, "What was that, Junior? I couldn't hear you, I might need you to SPEAK UP A LITTLE!"

"Ugh, you are a horrible person, did you know that? What are you doing here, anyways? You're supposed to be with Cinder."

Ruby returned from the kitchen with a class of seltzer water and a couple bananas to find Cinder standing beside an armchair watching her and Junior as if she was trying to solve a puzzle, "Junior, would a horrible person have just brought you a class of seltzer water and bananas to help with your hangover?"

Junior looked up slowly and gingerly took the seltzer water and bananas, "Ruby, you are quite possibly the best person I know, were you aware of that?"

"You might have told me a couple times yeah, although with the company you keep, it's not like there's much competition. And to answer your second question, I am with Cinder. She wanted to talk with you," Ruby retorted as she sat down.

"Hahaha, you're just so funny, aren't you. And what do you mean you're with Cinder, you're here..." His head snapped up and his eyes latched onto Cinder. He quickly set his class of water and bananas on the table and stood up, offering Cinder his hand to shake. That was he did so until he became unbalanced, from what Ruby assumed was him standing up too quickly and aggravating his headache.

Chuckling Ruby stood up and gently guided Junior back to the couch, "Go ahead and sit down, Cinder. Junior won't be in any condition to go anywhere anytime soon. While you two talk about whatever you need to discuss, I'm going to head to my tailor, and make a couple of other stops around town. Just give me a call when you're ready to go."

Cinder nodded and waved Ruby off while Ruby put her jacket back on, and left the apartment.

* * *

Ruby pushed open the door to _Pierce and Dunhill Suits and Dresses,_ and walked in. She was only a few feet in when she spotted the person she was looking for and started walking towards him. Pierce wasn't a tall man but he wasn't short either, he was basically the epitome of average height. He had straight black hair gelled in a small fauxhawk , striking blue-gray eyes, and skin that had a natural tan to it. As soon as Pierce noticed her, he told his assistant to finish with the client he had and met Ruby halfway.

"Rose! It's so nice to see you again! Decided to stop in while you were in the area, eh? How are you? We really don't get together often enough. I know, you should come over to my place for dinner one night. Margaret would love to see you-" Ruby snorted, "Oh, who am I kidding? Margaret would rather rip your face off with a garden trowel than have you over for dinner."

Ruby laughed and patted him on the arm, "Only cause she knows you love me more. And...no, I'm sorry but this isn't a social call."

"What do you mean? You were only in here last week to get your yearly set of suits, was there something wrong with them? I did them myself, I didn't notice anything wrong with them," Pierce questioned. His brow was furrowed and the look on his face was enough to make Ruby feel like she'd kicked a puppy.

"Nonononono, there was nothing wrong with them. They were perfect in fact, it's just...I need a new one made including the spare suit jacket. Junior had me doing a couple jobs last night and the entire suit plus the extra jacket got ruined," Ruby said trying to console him.

Pierce nodded. As far as Ruby could tell the consolation that there wasn't anything wrong with the suits was enough to distract him from the fact that Ruby had ruined one of his suits. Part of her felt bad for making him worry like that but another was just relieved that he didn't get angry with her. Pierce preferred to take new measurements each time he made a suit or set of suits, and an angry Pierce often meant that Ruby was stabbed with needles the entire time she was being measured.

* * *

"So how did your talk with Junior go?" Ruby questioned as her and Cinder walked to the car in the early twilight light.

"A little better than expected. He gave me the same recommendations that you did. He even gave me some information on someone that I'm hunting while I'm in town for free which should shorten my stay here in Vale considerably."

"So where are we going next?"

"To pay a little thief a visit."

"Ah."

* * *

Ruby stopped outside the building, and got out of the car. She was in full professional mode now. Cinder had brought them to the Vale slums. The building they were looking at was owned by a man who had stolen a large sum of cash from Cinder's employer, and then absconded with it to Vale. It turned out that he had used the money to set up his own black market dealings. This building was his headquarters.

Junior had told Cinder the layout of the building and Cinder had in turn told Ruby. The building was an old warehouse. At two stories tall, the building had only one room on the bottom floor and the top floor consisted solely of an office in the far back left corner from the entrance of the warehouse.

Ruby heard Cinder get out of the car on the other side, and looked at her, "You know how to defend yourself, correct? Or is this going to be one of those jobs where I need to keep an eye on a client while I'm trying to protect them because they insist on throwing themselves into dangerous situations?"

"I can defend myself, yes." Cinder said, "My fighting style is mainly Dust based though, hence why I asked Junior for a bodyguard."

 _Ah, so you're squishy. No,_ Ruby shook her head, _bad Ruby, focus on the job._

Cinder turned her head and gave Ruby a look, "Is there a problem?"

Ruby waved her off, "It's nothing."

The two walked side-by-side to the door when they reached it Ruby turned and looked at Cinder, "Stay behind me, but stay close as well. Got it?"

Cinder looked miffed but Ruby couldn't tell if that was because she wasn't used to being given orders or if she felt like Ruby was treating her like a moron.

Ruby stepped forward, grabbed the door handle, counted down from three with her free hand, and flung the door open. As soon as she did that she activated her Semblance and used her sped up brain processing to analyze the inside of the warehouse. The first floor contained 48 tables set up in a 6x8 grid. At each table were drugs waiting to be packaged the next day. Interspersed around the building were eight guards. Two were standing next to a pillar near the front talking, three were walking among the tables watching to make sure the workers didn't steal anything, the last three were sitting around a table in the back.

Ruby ran straight towards the two in the front when she reached them she drew her leg to her chest and lashed out, her foot connecting with his sternum, broke it, and sent him flying back into a wall. She then spun and punched the other one in the throat, crushing his windpipe. She turned and ran into the group of tables. She ran towards the guard nearest her, dodged to her left at the last moment before collision and clotheslined him. She stopped just past him, about faced, and elbowed him in the stomach. His head hit the floor, knocking him unconscious. Deactivating her Semblance, to conserve energy, Ruby stalked towards her next opponent, who was carrying a rifle. Hearing the telltale sound of a safety being switched off to her left, Ruby used her Semblance to roll forward, come up and rip the gun from her current quarry with one hand. She deactivated her Semblance, grabbed the gun barrel in both hands, swung and connected with her opponents head. As soon as the butt of the gun connected, Ruby threw herself backwards into a roll, that ended with her standing, ejected the magazine, caught it, turned her head towards the guard whose safety was off and flung the magazine at him. She watched long enough to make sure it hit him in the forehead, before turning towards the three who had been at the table in the back, only to find them dead. One had an arrow in his heart, one looked like something had sliced his carotid artery – likely the arrow embedded in the wall behind him – and the final one had made it about halfway to cover before an arrow embedded itself in the soft spot in the back of his skull.

Ruby spun around to see Cinder leaning against a pillar with no bow in sight. "That was you wasn't it?"

Cinder merely shrugged, and stood upright, "At least, Junior wasn't lying when he said you know what you're doing." Cinder gestured towards the stairs that led up to the office where they could see the man they had come for cowering through the glass.

* * *

 **12 days later**

"Finally decided to take me up on that offer, Red?"

Ruby shuddered, and stepped to the side so Roman could step into the apartment, "No, Roman, just...just no."

Roman sauntered into the apartment, spinning his Melodic Cudgel as he did so, "Ah, Red, me think thou dost protest too much."

"Roman, remember that time you got drunk and challenged me to a fight, and I promptly kicked your butt ?"

"Hey! I was drunk! That doesn't count, and I think the word you were looking for sweetheart was _ass."_

"Don't make me do it again -"

"Oh, like you coul-"

"Children! Cut it out!" Cinder cut in.

"He started it!"

"She started – dammit! You beat me to it!"

Ruby stuck her tongue out at him, and Roman stuck his out in response, and then his head snapped to his right and stared at Cinder who was wearing a black shimmering dress with glowing orange dust sewn into it from her wrist up her arms, and around the top of the dress, both in the front and, Ruby knew, also in the back. He then leaned conspiratorially towards Ruby and spoke in a stage whisper, all while watching Cinder, "Red, who is that?! And why is she in your apartment?" Roman gasped, stood up straight, looked at Ruby with an expression of fake glee in his one visible eye and placed his hands over his heart, "Red, is the reason you kept turning me down because you were waiting to have a threesome?" Roman stepped forward, wrapped Ruby in a hug that pinned her arms to her side, picked her up and swung her back and forth, "You...are...the... best...friend...a guy...could have."

Ruby squirmed out of his grasp, and straightened her jacket as she spoke, "Definitely not Roman. I would..." Ruby saw Cinder's expression and body language out of the corner of her eye and quickly switched topics, "Actually, I asked you here because Cinder wanted to see you about potentially hiring you for a job."

Roman slowly turned his head and faced Cinder, "Oooh, and I just..."

"Mm-hm," Ruby hummed as she nodded, "Yes, yes you did."

Cinder smiled sweetly – making both Roman and Ruby gulp –, and then swept her arm towards the dining room table, "Please sit down, so we can get started. Before I have to burn you both alive and complete my business elsewhere."

Both gulped again, and followed Cinder to the table where she sat at one end, Roman at the other end and Ruby on the side facing the wall that held the TV and entertainment system. Roman and Cinder started talking about what Cinder wanted him to do, and Ruby tuned them out. She'd already been to five of these meetings in the past twelve days and in each of them the same thing was talked about. Cinder was looking to hire someone to lead and manage some cheap muscle. For now, she just needed them to steal as much Dust as possible without getting caught by the authorities, and store it in a secure location. Each of the people Cinder interrogated before Roman, failed for various reasons, hopefully Roman would meet Cinder's expectations because Ruby was tired of sitting in these meetings. At least with Roman, she could space out because she knew he wouldn't do anything to endanger Cinder, not when she was under Ruby's protection and not in Ruby's home.

Ruby's mind drifted to the past twelve days that Cinder had been here. After that first day, they kind of hit a rough patch. Cinder was used to controlling everything around her, and everyone being scared of her. Ruby on the other hand, refused to allow Cinder to control her, and wasn't by any means scared of her. They argued, they fought, they almost came to blows. But after a while they settled into a routine and Ruby at least began to enjoy living with Cinder, and if Cinder's gradual attitude change towards her was any indicator, so had Cinder. Ruby would wake up at six every morning either work in her workshop, or workout or train in her workout room for two hours. She would then come down and Cinder would have made breakfast. After breakfast, they would go about doing whatever they needed to do that day. Ruby actually thought that Cinder might enjoy having someone around that she couldn't intimidate and who would stand up to her. About seven days in Cinder actually started making jokes, smiling, and laughing while her and Ruby were alone. A couple days later Ruby made Cinder watch a superhero movie marathon, Cinder laid on the couch while Ruby made a pallet on the floor. And the next day in retaliation Cinder forced Ruby to accompany her to a tea house, and much to Ruby's delight she found out that she actually enjoyed Earl Grey tea. The two had met with various groups about providing muscle and Cinder had finally decided on working with the White Fang, she would get her muscle for free, and the White Fang would be able to claim credit for the attacks they were used in so long as they did exactly what they were told to do. They had also met with Hans and Gerda, as well as Little Bear and a few others. Cinder had also decided to accompany Ruby on several visits to "business partners" that Junior had needed to Ruby to see to.

"...I'll be in touch with you later. I still have some last minute negotiating to do with the White Fang, but in the meantime make do with the men that Junior has provided."

Ruby shook her head to focus herself, and then looked at Cinder, "Was he acceptable?"

Cinder nodded and started walking towards her room.

"Does that mean your business here in Vale is complete?'

"For now, go get prepared to go. I figured he would be acceptable since both you and Junior recommended him, so I went ahead and arranged to be picked up at these coordinates by a bullhead," Cinder was raising her voice to be heard from inside her room, and Ruby's scroll dinged as she received the coordinates. Cinder came out of her room carrying her duffel bag, "I've already messaged the pilot to meet me there in an hour, well come on I want to get going, and you're just sitting there."

* * *

Ruby walked into Junior's club, sat at the bar, and just rested her head on her arms. She sat there like that for a few minutes, until she heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the bar at which point she sat up and watched Junior approach with a club soda.

"Just finish dropping off Cinder?" Junior asked as he slid her the carbonated water.

"Yeah, glad to finally be off the clock for the first time in thirteen or so days. Why do you have that look on your face?"

Junior started frantically wiping down the bar with a towel, "What look? I don't have a look on my face. This is just my normal, everyday ugly mug."

" _Junior."_

Junior sighed, "I may or may not have already signed you up for another job tomorrow."

Ruby narrowed her eyes as Junior got noticeably more fidgety, "Doing what exactly?"

"Escorting a Schnee around town and then to a gala. Wait, why did you take my towel. Ruby, don't do it. No! Ow! Ruby that – ow! - really hurts – ow – stop chasing me!"

* * *

 **A/N: Well...that one turned out longer than I expected it to actually be. I just couldn't find anywhere to end it Thank you to those who favorited and followed after the first chapter. Review, comment, ask questions, throw internet feces through the bars of your cage, it's all appreciated. At the least, I can use the feces to feed George, and fertilize my imaginary garden...I'd fertilize my real one, but...everything keeps dying.**

 **I'm not going to be able to come out with chapters every day or even every other day like I would like to but I will be trying to push out chapters as often as I can, and at the least I will make sure to post one by midnight every Saturday at the latest.**

 **If anyone wants to beta, just throw me a PM, and I'll check you out. In the meantime if you see a typo just send me a PM or put it in a review. Thanks. Until next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Ruby screwed the last bolt in place, and turned off the music coming from her scroll. She then picked up Crescent Rose and turned around to face the rest of her workshop.

The workshop was the size of her actual apartment, but was split into two rooms by a large five foot thick aluminum oxynitride wall. The room that the spiral staircase came down into took up about a third of the apartment, and was the actual workshop area. There were various different workstations and tools pressed up against the walls and above each of the workstations was at least one touchscreen, each of which showed various blueprints, notes made by Ruby, science articles and digital textbooks related to whatever it was that Ruby had been working on there. The second room could be reached through two aluminum oxynitride doors placed one after another in the wall to create a double buffer in the wall's weakness. The walls, other than the aluminum oxynitride one, ceiling, other than where the lights were recessed into it behind aluminum oxynitride glass, and floor were covered by a foot of concrete that was placed over a layer of a steel alloy consisting of iron and aluminum, that had a greater strength to weight ratio than titanium and would bend rather than break when it reached it's limit, which was in turn covering some sound proofing material. The room was completely empty of anything, creating a safe place that Ruby could test out her inventions, and weapons without worrying about hurting anyone. The entire building that Ruby's apartment complex had been built in had at one point been completely torn down in order to rebuild it so that Ruby's apartment wouldn't pose a structural instability. The ceiling of the apartment below Ruby's was actually two feet lower than the other apartments in the building and the walls of the apartments beside all three of the apartments Ruby were shifted over two feet, all to make the added protections of Ruby's home a little more inconspicuous.

Carrying Crescent Rose in one hand, Ruby went through the first transparent ceramic door, closed that one and then proceeded through the next one, making sure to close that one as well. For the next hour Ruby tested out the new iron-aluminum alloy blade on her gun-scythe and practiced with Crescent Rose. Her session was ended by the alarm on her scroll going off, signaling that she needed to get prepared for her day out with whichever Schnee she was taking around town.

Ruby collapsed Crescent Rose, and left the reinforced testing room, making a mental note to have someone come in and repair it as she did so. Rather than placing Crescent Rose in it's usual place on the wall, Ruby carried it with her up the stairs, and to her room where she placed it on her bed. Ruby strode over to her closet and started pulling out her outfit for the day.

She slipped on a pair of white dress pants, black socks, dress shoes, a light blue dress shirt with a pinpoint collar, and after that a special harness designed to hold Crescent Rose on her lower back, and ones that held a throwing knife on each of her forearms. She clipped Crescent Rose on, as well as a couple clips of regular and cross-marked ammunition, and the knives on her wrists. She then put on a solid black tie and a slim fitting white suit jacket over the shirt and harness. Normally she would have stuck with just her handgun and the knife she kept on a harness on her calf, but traveling with a Schnee often resulted in attacks that were much more...intense than normal, and especially had a habit of attracting the attention of the White Fang. The redhead then put the finishing touches on with a white rose from the vase she kept on the top shelf of her closet, a light blue pocket square, and finally her rose cufflinks.

After getting dressed, Ruby walked over to her dresser and opened one of two identical boxes on the dresser. The box she opened was made from a wood cut from a rare tree found only in Mistral far to the east, and was a pure white colour while the other box was a dark colour and made from the wood of the trees found within the forest of Forever Fall. From the box she opened, she withdrew a full face mask made of the same steel as used in Crescent Rose and her testing room, with the eye holes covered in a layer of aluminum oxynitride, and one of several pairs of contacts designed to change the colour of her eyes. After flipping a small switch on the inside of the mask to activate a voice changer and inserting the contacts making her eyes appear a light shade of blue, she pressed the mask to her face with one hand while the other pushed a button hidden within the roses and vines designs adorning the mask. This in turn caused the inside of the mask to conform to Ruby's face while at the same time allowing her to speak and maintain a full range of motion with her face. The mask also contained hundreds of microscopic cameras hidden within the metal of the mask around the corners of the eyes that followed the motion of the eyes, and transmitted the image to the inside of the mask and whose lenses were also made of the same ceramic that covered the eyes allowing Ruby to wear the mask without having to sacrifice her peripheral vision. An identical mask to this one was within the black box but rather than being the natural silver of the steel, the steel of the mask had been subjected to an ultra-brief, ultra-intense burst of laser light which created nanostructures within the surface of the metal thereby increasing the surface area of the mask and the amount of radiation absorbed by the metal of the mask which allowed the mask to absorb almost every bit of light that hit it and made it pitch black.

Ruby then grabbed her scroll off of the dresser and dialed Junior while she left her apartment, making sure to grab the keys to her armored sedan, which was also created out of her favorite type of steel and aluminum oxynitride, and headed towards out the building to the garage, "So where am I picking the client today?"

" _They'll be at the usual pickup point_ ," so they would be at the Schnees' private airdocks. " _They hired you until about four this evening, at which point you will drop them off at the address you received last night_ ," So the Schnees' home here in Vale. _" You will then be expected at the second client's house,"_ aka pick the Schnee back up, _"at six. From there you will take them to charity event,"_ so take them to the gala. Hehe, a Schnee be allowed to attend a charity event? Comedy gold right there although now that she thought of it Winter might=. " _Which they must be at by 6:30_ ," So 7:00, " _And then you're done for the night,_ " Except she wasn't because she then had to attend the bloody thing.

"Got it. I'll talk to you later." Ruby hung up glad to not have to continue speaking in and translating her and Junior's code used when talking about clients that were likely to be targeted by assassins.

* * *

Ruby came to a stop at the airfield just as the phoenix started to descend. Ruby stepped out of her car closed the door, and waited for the airship to finish landing, feet shoulder width apart and hands clasped behind her, muttering as she did so, " Cookies, cookies, cookies! I timed it perfectly to get out as they stepped out! Blasted incompetent pilots!"

The next few moments as the phoenix settled and Ruby waited were incredibly tense for the little redhead. Junior's driving business, at least for the overs, was a legitimate company, and Ruby had been assigned as a driver for the Schnee's on several occasions, but who exactly stepped out of the plane would determine what the tone of the day was like.

Ruby watched as the ramp lowered, getting more and more tense as the seconds passed. She was getting so prepared to see who it was, that she missed someone had exited the airship until they were halfway down the ramp. When she finally did realize though, the tension couldn't have left her body faster. Striding towards her with a wide smile on her face was Winter Schnee.

Winter was the youngest of the Schnee sisters, she was only a few months older than Ruby who had turned 18 a couple months ago, though since the birth of Sturm Schnee, her brother, a few months ago she was no longer the baby of the family. Winter had been ignored most of her life by her parents who focused mainly on preparing her older sister, Weiss, to take over the company, and as a result Winter was pretty much raised by the servants, and was much more laid back than the rest of her relatives.

Ruby had first driven Winter around when the two were sixteen, and the two had become fast friends. From then on Winter had made sure to email Ruby ahead of any trip she made to Vale to make sure Ruby could drive her around. Part of Ruby was highly confused as to why her friend hadn't done so on this occasion but quickly shrugged it off as she stepped forward to meet the white haired beauty.

Winter basically ran to Ruby as soon as one of her feet touched the ground, and wrapped her arms around the redhead's neck, as the driver wrapped her own around Winter's waist, picked her up and spun her around, causing Winter to throw her head back and laugh in delight.

As Ruby set Winter back on the ground, the two pulled back until Ruby was holding Winter's hands in her own. Winter, whose smile had yet to leave her face since catching sight of Ruby, looked Ruby up and down, and smiled, "Looking the same as always, Silver. I see you're going with the green eyes this time."

"I told you! It's not silver!"

"Well until you tell me you're actual name, you're stuck with Silver. Got it?" Winter tapped the nose of the mask as she said this. "Anyways you still have yet to compliment me on my looks! Hmph!" Winter crossed her arms, turned her head away, and stuck her nose up in the air in fake indignation.

Ruby truly looked at her friend since first seeing her on the ramp. Winter took after her father and as a result had a more average height than her mother and sister did. She shared the same white hair, pale skin and blue eyes of her father and sister, as well as sharing her slight build with her mother and sister, but that's where the similarities ended. Winter kept her hair in a braid all the time, and wore more casual clothes than any of her family members. For this day, Winter had what appeared to be a royal blue T-shirt on under a light blue hoodie stamped with a white snowflake on the front. She also had on a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of steel toe boots that Ruby had given her on Winter's last birthday to replace Winter's last pair that she had had for almost three years. Somehow though, Winter managed to look better in the clothes than any supermodel Ruby had ever seen, and Ruby made sure to watch the Elizabeth's Discretion fashion show every year.

"You look ravishing as always, Winter," This quickly made Winter drop her indignant act and even brought a blush to her cheeks as Ruby knew it would. "But why didn't you email me ahead of time like normal?"

"Well...the thing is...originally, I wasn't going to be coming along?" Winter said, cringing a little.

At this point, Ruby was being exceptionally dense, even for her, "What do you mean you weren't -"

 _"Ahem!"_

The redhead had already activated her Semblance, turned towards the sound, pushed Winter behind her, and had Crescent Rose drawn and fully extended by the time the sound was even fully out of its speaker's mouth. Ruby quickly calmed, deactivated her Semblance, and put Crescent Rose away as she saw who it was standing on the end of the ramp of the phoenix.

"I apologize, Ms. Schnee. I wasn't aware that you would be accompanying your sister today."

"And your employer didn't see fit to tell you who you would be driving around today?"

"For high profile cases such as this it's against company policy to discuss who a client is and when they are being picked up, for safety reasons unless it's in a confirmed safe location and even then it's with the barest of details." Ruby had never had the pleasure – or as it seemed to be going right now, displeasure – of driving Weiss around. In fact as far as Ruby was aware, Weiss had never even set foot in Vale until now, most of the business meetings and social events, such as tonight's gala, were taken care of by one of her parents while the other one would remain in Atlas to teach Weiss the ins and outs of the company. Winter on the other hand was able to basically do whatever she wanted, including take pleasure trips to Vale whenever she wanted.

"Uh-huh. And why exactly are you wearing a mask, and not telling us your name?"

Dust and Grimm, Ruby hated breaking in new clients, "The mask is to-"

Winter slipped one of her arms around Ruby's waist, placed one of the driver's arms around her shoulders, and cut the redhead off, "Silver wears a mask, disguises her voice, and refuses to tell us her name because she likes to be 'Mysterious.'" Winter made sure to draw out the 'Mysterious', look at Ruby and waggle her fingers in front of Ruby's face as she did so, then she looked back at Weiss. "Don't let her convince you of anything else."

Ruby rolled her eyes at Winter's theatrics knowing Weiss would be able to see it through the clear ceramic covering them, "Despite Winter's claims," as Ruby said 'claims' she poked Winter in the stomach, "all of the methods used to disguise my identity, have been taken to ensure my own safety." _As well as yours._

"Safety from what? We're the Schnees, not you."

"Yes ma'am, that is true. Here in Vale though, as well as in the world at large, there are groups that would love to get a hold of a driver like me, on the off chance I might be able to provide information or used as leverage against those who hire my services. I, alone, have survived several attempted assassination and kidnappings made just after driving around members of your family in the hopes that I could provide useful to them and their crusades against your family and that was with the mask."

Weiss raised an eyebrow at the redhead, "Is that so?"

Ruby smirked even though she knew Weiss wouldn't see it, "That is so. I'm not hired out as a driver/bodyguard combo for nothing."

"Like I said, it's only because she likes to remain mysterious," Winter chimed in once again, nonchalantly waving her hand at Weiss.

Ruby let her arm fall from Winter's shoulder as she turned towards the car and headed back to it, pinching Winter's arm as she did so, "Shush you."

Ruby opened the driver side backdoor for the two sisters, a part of her sad that Winter wasn't sitting in the front like she normally did. After the two got in, Ruby closed the door and got up front. Ruby positioned the mirror so she could see out the back window, as well as see the two sisters, "Off we go. And remember," Ruby pointed at Winter's reflection in the rearview mirror, "no trying any funny business back there."

Weiss responded with a sigh, after the conversation they had had before getting in the car Ruby didn't know what else she would have expected from Weiss, while Winter stuck her tongue out at Ruby.

Ruby returned her attention back to the road until she heard whispering in the backseat, and felt something hit her in the side of the head, at which point she looked over to the passenger seat to try and find what Winter had thrown at her, "Did you seriously just throw a piece of candy corn at me? What are you five?"

"Of course not, I'm three," Winter said it so promptly and with such a matter-of-fact voice that Ruby could only chuckle in reply.

* * *

The drive out of the airfield reinforced the old adage to never judge a book by it's cover in Ruby's mind. Ruby had expected Weiss to remain cold and distant the entire time but from what Ruby could hear from the backseat, Weiss was anything but that towards her sister. On the contrary, to all appearances Weiss adored Winter and seemed to love her younger sibling like only a big sister could.

Ruby glanced up at the rear view mirror for a second, "Where to first Ms. Schnee?"

"Silver, I swear if you call me Ms. Schnee one more time..."

"You'll do what Winter? Besides I would never call you Ms. Schnee. If anything, it'd be Mr. Schnee."

There was a rather audible gasp from Winter's side of the car which was followed quickly by the feeling of another candy corn bouncing off of the driver's head again, "Stop throwing candy corn in my car," Ruby whined playfully.

Ruby heard Weiss let loose a small giggle at her and Winter's antics, it reminded the redhead of Winter's laugh, beautiful and full of life. The voice that addressed the redhead after that though was anything but, "Straight to _Vale's Finest Clothes and Jewelry._ "

* * *

Ruby sighed, "Dust and Grimm, I hate shopping trips."

Ruby watched Winter walk over from where she had been standing, watching the tailor attend to Weiss, and come to a stop next to the redhead.

Winter was silent for a moment as if deep in though before saying, "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I'm thinking," Ruby felt the fabric of a suit jacket beside her before letting it fall back to its original position, "that this place is horrible, and I want to rescue both of you from this man's evil clutches and convert you to faithful shoppers of _Pierce and Dunhill's._ "

The tailor's head snapped to look at Ruby when he heard Pierce' name. The pudgy man dropped what he was doing with Weiss and started stalking towards the two teenagers. Meanwhile Winter had grapped the scythe wielder's arm and was jumping up and down with glee, "Please do. Please do. I haven't seen Pierce in ages! And last time when we were picking up your suits, I saw this _gorgeous_ pale blue dress that I really wanted to try on but we didn't have the time and..."

At this point the tailor had reached them and was vehemently wagging his finger at the redhead, "Never mention that name in my store again..."

He was quickly tuned out as Ruby noticed Weiss stepping off the block and walk over to see what all the commotion was about, "What's going on over here?"

"Th-th-this man – "

"Woman, " Winter interjected, " I mean how did you not notice her boobs? I thought men's eyes were like magnetically drawn to every boob in a room. Then there's those curves of hers – "

"Curves? What curves could you possibly see? I'm wearing a suit for Huntress' sake!"

"Yeah, but remember that time your jacket got dirty and you had to take it off to put a new one on?"

"I think so? You would be surprised how often that happens."

"Anyways, you had your shirt tucked in really tight and-"

"Oh! I know what you're talking about now."

"Both of you, shush! Now what were you saying, sir?"

"This woman!" At this he glared at Ruby and Winter, both of whom were wearing expressions of innocence on their faces, "was talking about – umph!"

Tiring of the man"s whiny voice, Ruby stepped forward and clapped a hand over the tailor's mouth, making his already scarlet face turn a more interesting shade of purple.

"What I was saying was this guy is a third rate tailor selling second rate materials in his clothes and worse in jewelry, all while claiming it's of the finest quality."

Weiss looked at the driver as if she had suddenly grown a second head, "You're calling this tailor, suggested to me by my father no less, third rate and a liar? I hope you have some proof to back your claims up."

"I do. Winter, if you could?"

"Of course, Silver. Anything for you." Winter stepped forward and placed her hand over the man's mouth as soon as Ruby removed her own.

Ruby looked at her hand for a moment before wiping it on the tailor's back. She then grabbed her scroll out of pocket on the inside of her jacket. After searching for a specific file pulling it up, the driver passed her scroll to Weiss. _One, two, three, and there go the eyebrows._

"Is this legitimate?" Weiss asked waving Ruby's scroll on which lay proof that the man was buying cheap low-quality fabrics and low purity metals, and selling them as higher quality materials as well as buying jewelry from aspiring jewelry makers and selling it as his own.

"Yes."

"And how exactly did you get a hold of it?"

"The scroll? They sell them just down the-"

The heiress tossed the scroll back to Ruby, "Not the scroll, you dolt. The file."

The scythe wielder tapped the side of the nose on the mask, "Trade secret, princess. I can't exactly go about giving those away, now can I?"

"No, I guess you can't," Weiss said with a dry tone while rolling her eyes. She then turned towards the tailor who looked like he was about to have an apoplectic fit, "We're done here."

The older sister turned on her heel and started walking towards the exit. While she did that, Ruby peeled Winter's hand off of the tailor's face, wiped it on the tailor's jacket, and then pushed Winter towards the exit. The entire time Winter was shouting to let her go back because, "...I want to see if his face turns blue like in the cartoons!"

"That only happens when people can't breath, Winter."

"Oh, well...I can hold his nose as well!"

* * *

Ruby held the door open, and let the two Schnees into _Pierce and Dunhill's Suits and Dresses._ After gesturing for the two women to stay where they were, Ruby took a couple of steps further into the shop before cupping her hands around her mouth, and shouting, "Pierce! Get your butt out here! I have a present for you!"

Weiss glared at Ruby, the driver wasn't sure if it was because she had yelled indoors, or because she had called the two sister's a present. There was silence for a moment, and then a door in the back opened and Pierce walked out. "Silver! What are you shouting about? Have you finally kidnapped Winter and need me to help you hide her," Pierce asked, catching sight of the mask as soon as he stepped out.

The redhead groaned, "She's got you doing it as well?"

Pierce shrugged, "What else am I supposed to call you? Driver? Nah, Silver works just as well."

He finally turned his attention to the two people standing behind Ruby, "Now I know Winter, personally, so I can only assume the lady standing beside her is Weiss Schnee?" As Pierce said this he stepped forward and took first Winter's hand and kissed the back of it, and then did the same with Weiss'.

"You would be correct in that assumption. I kidnapped them from the clutches of _Vale's Finest Clothes and Jewelry_ and brought them here so they could be properly attired for the gala they're attending tonight."

Pierce stepped forward and wrapped Ruby in a hug, "You are the best person in the whole world. You knew just what to get me."

The tailor leaned back and looked Ruby in the eye, "I'm still expecting a birthday present though, you know that right?"

* * *

Weiss stepped out of the measuring room, while Winter went in. There was an awkward silence between the driver and the heiress until Weiss broke it, "So Pierce is the best in the city?"

Ruby chuckled, "I don't know if he's the best in the city, but I have him do my own suits, and he's a good honest man."

The heiress nodded, "That's good enough for me."

Silence reigned for a little longer, "You know she talks about you all the time."

Ruby was surprised by Weiss' statement, "No, I didn't know that."

"Every time she comes back it's, 'Silver said this, Silver said that. Silver and I went and did so and so.' I'm glad she has at least one person she can consider a friend. Even if you are only her friend because she's paying you."

The redhead snapped around to look at Weiss when next she spoke it was with a growl, " I'm not friends with her because she pays me. In fact on her trips here, she doesn't pay me anything, I drive her around for free because she's a friend and I like spending time with her."

Weiss looked at Ruby's mask carefully as if trying to read the face hidden behind it, "I'm sorry. I'm...In Atlas, around the people we grew up around, it's rare to find someone who genuinely wants to be your friend for no reason other than wanting to be your friend. So please, forgive me, if a large part of me still has a hard time believing you."

Winter stepped out and looked at Ruby's tense and angry posture, and Weiss' sorrowful expression, "Sooo...what did I miss?"

Both Ruby and Weiss swung around, their body language changing upon realizing Winter had stepped out, and snapped out a quick, "Nothing!"

The youngest sister sighed as if the other two were the most exasperating things in the world, "You two make my head hurt sometimes,, and that's when you're apart. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot worse with you together."

"We make your head hurt? Did you hear the two of you at _Vale's Finest_?! I thought you two were going to go at it right then and there!"

Pierce, who had stepped out right behind Winter, quickly chimed in with, "Yeah...from what I've seen that's a rather common feeling around these two."

This time it was Ruby and Winter who swung around and gasped at Pierce, letting out a synchronous, "Pierce!"

"What?! It's not my fault if you could cut the sexual tension between the two of you with a butter knife!"

This comment was followed by three gasps of "Pierce!"

* * *

Ruby closed her eyes, sighed, and then opened them again. The driver then felt the hand on her left arm squeeze and looked over to find Winter staring at her with a concerned expression on her face, "Nervous?"

The driver shook her head, "No, I'm just...preparing to swim the shark infested waters that is the rich social scene."

"You'll be fine."

"I know, it's just that I don't like being in these kinds of places."

When Winter spoke next it was with hurt in her voice and her eyes, "What kind of places? Places full of rich people? People like me?"

"No! I meant places full of people who I have to be on constant guard against because to them I'm fresh meat. The people I'm talking about are the complete opposite of you, Winter."

 _It is because of your presence though that I'm going to have to cow them all into leaving me alone with precision rather than brute force like I normally would._

The relief on Winter's face couldn't have been more palpable, "Oh, okay. I'm sorry."

Ruby turned and pulled Winter into a hug, resting her chin on older girl's head, "There's nothing to be sorry for, Winter. Everyone has moments like that. I was an idiot to phrase it the way I had and for that I'm sorry."

" _Ahem._ "

The two of them broke apart turned to find Weiss standing on the steps of the building the gala was being held in staring at them, "Shall we head in, or do you two just want to spend the rest of the night out here hugging?"

Winter actually seemed to be entertaining the thought, "Well..."

Weiss rolled her eyes at her sister, "Come on you two."

 _Into the mouth of the dragon,_ Ruby thought to herself. As they headed in Ruby thought over how the rest of the day went. The trip to _Pierce and Dunhill's_ had gone spectacularly. Weiss had picked up a sleeveless, and backless white dress that went down to her ankle and had a slit up one side all the way to her knee. Winter had chosen a light blue form fitting one, that went down to her left knee and then angled down to her ankle on the right side.

After that they went to a few more stores to pick out some more items the two sisters felt they needed, some were stores the two sisters had heard about or had suggested to them, while others were ones that Ruby took them to either because they hadn't been able to find what they had wanted at the original store or because Ruby knew something that made the original store unsuitable.

After their shopping spree ended, much to Ruby's delight, Ruby dropped her two charges off at their family house here in Vale, and headed back to her apartment. Once there she took a shower, and put on a new outfit exactly identical to the one she had been wearing earlier in the day. When she was done it was time to head back to pick the other two up for the gala, which brought them to now.

Once inside things went about as Ruby expected. The two girls she had driven here either left to socialize or were dragged off, to much protesting on Winter's part, to socialize, and Ruby positioned herself halfway up the stairs of the stage on which the band was playing where she could see both of her charges at all times. Normally Ruby would have preferred to stay near whoever she was protecting unless they were in a secure location, but having two people to protect in a place where they were expected to drift around on their own that wasn't possible. But with both Crescent Rose and her Semblance, Ruby wasn't too worried about not being able to properly respond to a threat. Only three things happened the entire night, that were of interest to Ruby.

The first thing, and thing of least interest to Ruby came in the form of a young man who she had seen speaking to some of his friends and glancing at her before approaching her. "What are you too good to show your face around the rest of us? Or are you just so hideous underneath that mask that you're scared to be seen?"

The redhead didn't even bother to turn her head towards him, instead making sure to keep both of the Schnee sisters in her sight at all times, "Leave me alone Weston, you really don't want to mess with me right now."

The young Weston heir looked around as if someone had snuck her the answer somehow, "How did you know who I am?"

Ruby shifted to her left a little to get a clearer sight of Winter before responding, "Weston, I'm going to finish this sentence and then I'm going to say one word that will explain why you should leave me alone, how I knew who you were, and why you're going to make sure that the word spreads around the room that no one is to bother me, got it? Magenta."

The range of expressions that crossed Weston heir's face was something that Ruby dearly wished she could have watched full on rather than just from her peripheral vision. First there was anger that she had spoken to him that way, then there was confusion about why she said "Magenta", quickly followed by recognition, and finally fear which was the last thing she saw before he turned away and returned to his friends.

The Weston heir was Hortensius Weston, the son of one of the wealthiest businessman in all of Vale and was actually the one who was funding this gala. His father was Darius Zephyrus Weston. Darius was the head of a weapons manufacturing business, and was one of the top in the world. He didn't get there completely legitimately, in fact a large portion of what got him to where he was was information purchased from Junior and then used to blackmail his competitors to either merge with him, or step down from the weapons manufacturing business indefinitely.

On several occasions Ruby had been sent to take information to Darius and to drive him and sometimes Hortensius around. When she had done so it was always in her outfit and mask used for under dealings. As a way of verifying themselves, a random colour would be selected and one would be expected to know it when asked. When she had driven around the two Weston males just a couple weeks ago, the color had been magenta. By telling him it, she showed that she was more than likely the person who was implicitly aware of every bit of his father's dirty laundry. Even if it didn't cross his mind that she was that person, he knew that she at least knew about his father's dirty dealings.

Ruby got a perverse kind of pleasure out of the way people would turn slightly in her direction in curiosity as they were told that she was to be left alone.

The second thing that happened was when Winter approached her asking for a dance. At first, Ruby refused but after like fifteen minutes of asking and Weiss coming over and subsequently promising to remain standing on the stairs, Ruby relented.

The two of them slowly walked out to the dance floor, hand-in-hand. Ruby wasn't sure but she was convinced that it was Weiss's doing that as they reached the dance floor, an extremely slow song started. Winter wrapped her arms around Ruby's neck as Ruby wrapped her arms around Winter's waist. The two of them started off dancing at arms-length, but as time passed they slowly closed the distance until they were lucky if their bodies were even an inch apart from one another.

Winter was silent with her head resting on Ruby's chest, and Ruby's head was resting on Winter's head. Finally after a long moment Ruby nudged Winter prompting her to pull her head back and look Ruby in the face. Ruby was silent for a moment longer putting her thoughts in order before speaking, "What's wrong, Winter? You've been a lot more quiet today than you normally are. Normally you spit out whatever pops into your head without thinking about it," that elicited an indignant "Hey!" from Winter, "but today you seem to be thinking a lot about something, what is it?"

"Silver, I-" her eyes darted to the left, and when next they returned to Ruby's face, she had a smile upon her own even if Ruby did notice it didn't reach her eyes, "I'm fine. Just been thinking about some stuff."

Recognizing that her friend didn't want to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her, she drew Winter back to her chest and rested her head upon Winter's once again. They waited until that song was over and then started heading back to where Weiss was standing.

The last thing that happened that night was by far the most interesting even if it wasn't anywhere near as pleasurable as the dance or even putting the fear of Grimm into the young Weston fool, and started as they were walking towards Weiss. The first warning Ruby had of what was going on was the breaking of the windows that lined the edge of the room, and the screams that followed.

Without bothering to look behind her Ruby scooped Winter up bridal style activated her Semblance and sprinted to Weiss's side. Once there she deactivated her Semblance, put Winter on the ground, grabbed the two sisters by their wrists and started dragging them towards the doors out of the room, making sure to keep the crowd between the three of them and the windows.

By the time they had reached the doors to leave the screams had intensified, and the people had finally started reacting to what was going on. Those who were armed started running towards the windows, and those who weren't or were and were just cowardly, untrained, or both had started running towards the doors to leave. Thanks to Ruby's quick thinking the three of them had managed to reach the doors before the mob rushed it, and about halfway there the girls had caught on to where Ruby was taking them and started fast walking ahead of her allowing them to reach the doors even faster.

Ruby tested the doors only to find them locked. Without pausing or thinking about it Ruby drew a throwing knife, activated her Semblance and reinforced the aura around her leg, and then kicked one of the doors. The side of the double doors that she had kicked came off the hinges and then swung open, pivoting on the chain that had been placed there to hold the two doors closed. The redhead stepped through the now open door and spotted the White Fang member who was blinking as if that would help him find out how the door opened. A moment later his blinking had turned into a glazed over wide eyed expression as a knife buried itself to the hilt in his throat.

Ruby grabbed the wrists of her two charges once again but rather than head towards the front like everyone else at the gala would, instead Ruby dragged the other two women back to the stairs in the hallway that Ruby had noticed on their way in.

Weiss yanked her hand out of the redhead's grasp, causing Ruby to stop and turn towards her, "Where are you taking us?"

"What?! Ms. Schnee, we don't have time for this!"

"First, I asked that you call me Weiss, like you call my sister Winter. Second, you responded awfully quickly to the windows breaking. Everyone else was busy trying to figure out what was going on, whereas you reacted immediately. You were one of the few people, I know of, who knew we were coming, and I have no intention or reason to believe that you aren't in some way tied to this attack."

The scythe wielder's eyes hardened behind her mask, "I would _never_ do _anything_ that could endanger, Winter. And I have information for you, _princess,_ if I had wanted you dead I would have recruited several of the people I know that are skilled marksmen, and women, equipped them with .50 caliber sniper rifles and we would have fired all at the same time, overwhelmed your aura, considering a large portion of high calibre sniper rifles can shoot _through_ a bull head six or seven rounds all at the same time would have easily done the job, and I wouldn't have needed to be closer than two miles away and you would have been dead before the sounds of the shots reached you. Now, you can either follow me or stay here and be murdered, or worse, by the White Fang. I'm going to the roof where I intend on having Junior send a bullhead and pick me up." Without waiting to see how Weiss responded to her rant, Ruby turned and started jogging up the stairs, pulling out her scroll and dialing Junior.

A few seconds later Junior picked up causing Ruby to sigh in relief, " _Hey Ruby, you're calling early. Did something happen?"_

"I'm so glad whoever arranged this was too stupid to jam communications in the area. Junior, send a bullhead to the roof of the building the gala is being held at."

" _What's going on, Speedy? You're worrying me_."

 _Yeah, cause that wasn't apparent by your use of a nickname I haven't gone by for like five years._

 _"_ White Fang. Send bullhead. Now."

" _Where the hell am I supposed to-_ "

"I don't care where you get one from or how you get it. Just get one and send it. To. My. Location." Ruby hung up.

* * *

When the three of them finally reached the roof, all hell was breaking loose below. The White Fang were tearing the people that ran out of the building to pieces indiscriminately.

The roof had the stairway cover, the air conditioning units that were directly across from the door starting about forty to fifty feet away, the gravel covering the roof, and the low concrete wall surrounding the edges of the building and that was it.

Winter and Weiss ran to the edge of the roof and looked over the wall. The younger sister looked over her shoulder back at Ruby, "How long until the bullhead gets here?"

Ruby gently pulled the two back by placing her hand on one shoulder each, not wanting to run the chance that someone would decide to break normal human behaviour and actually look up for once, "I'm not sure, but let's make sure to keep away from the edge of-"

The door to the stairs burst open causing the three of them to turn towards the disturbance and Ruby to step forward drawing her scythe.

From the shadows provided by the door emerged a mountain of a faunus. He was easily 7' 6", and if Ruby had to guess weighed close to two hundred and sixty pounds, but considering he seemed to be all muscle it was probably more than that. He had a standard White Fang uniform on except he had no sleeves and wore a full face Grimm mask over his face. He was tan skinned with a blonde lion's mane around his head. The only other thing of note was the fact that his arm appeared to be made of metal. It looked like scales, and every time he moved it looked like it rippled in a manner similar to water, "Lookie, Lookie, and they said I wouldn't find anything up here. Adam is going to be so pissed that I was the one to find the Schnees and kill them but oh well. He'll get over it once he realizes that I actually managed to kill not one but both Schnee daughters."

Ruby stepped forward keeping herself between the two white haired girls and the faunus, "These girls are under my protection, they are part of my pride. If you want them then you'll have to fight me for them." Ruby said appealing to the lion half of the faunus by challenging him.

The faunus threw his head back and laughed, "I like you little one, even if you do dress like a peacock. Fine, you wish to challenge me then I accept. First let us remove these bloody masks, and introduce ourselves. People like us, we should know the faces of our enemies, so that when we meet in the afterlife we can greet each other with alcohol, songs, camaraderie, boasting from whoever survived the fight, and teasing from the loser for all the mistakes the winner went on to make." The faunus reached up and pulled off the mask covering his face. Ruby didn't roll that way, but even she could tell he was handsome. He had vibrant green eyes, and a crooked smile that was only enhanced by the pronounced canine visible on his left side as he smiled.

Ruby looked at the two Schnee sisters, back to the faunus, and back to the girls, "Winter, Weiss go over to the corner of the roof, crouch, turn away, and cover your ears."

Winter looked like she was about to protest but Weiss pulled her away gently. As Weiss did so, she looked the redhead in the eye. Within Weiss' eyes were conflicting emotions. On the one hand, there was admiration for what the scythe wielder was doing, but at the same time she was looking at the redhead like she was a moron for even trying, as if the heiress knew Ruby was going to die. Also visible within her eyes was a glare that clearly told Ruby that she had better win or else.

After they had done as Ruby asked, she turned back to the faunus, removed her mask, and slid it across the ground to lay by the wall. Ruby stood up, "My name is Ruby Rose, and yours is?"

The faunus bowed, "Alizarin Carnelian, at your service...at least until this fight is over."

Ruby smirked and shook her head.

Seeing the scythe wielder wasn't going to be drawn into a conversation, Alizarin nodded and grew serious, "Let's begin then."

For the next few seconds, the two of them stood there and did nothing at all waiting for the other to act first. Seeing that Alizarin wasn't going to budge, Ruby took a step to her right, a move quickly imitated by the lion faunus. Ruby took another step to her right. Halfway through the motion, she activated her Semblance, placed her foot on the ground again, took two steps to her left, charged forwards, drew Crescent Rose back, and swung diagonally from left to right, firing the sniper part of the sniper scythe once as she did so...and felt her scythe rebound off of something. Going with the momentum of the rebound, Ruby threw herself backwards into a back flip. When she landed and deactivated her Semblance, she found Alizarin standing in the same spot he had been when she started but he was lowering his metal arm from a blocking position.

"Since you've been kind enough to reveal your semblance so early on, Ms. Rose. I will be kind enough to tell you mine. I can sense the direction from which an opponent is going to hit me from a couple of seconds before they do so. As you can see this negates the benefit you gain from your speed because I will know where to position myself to defend myself before even you know where you're going to strike."

Ruby shook her head, _He has to be lying. There is no such thing as a Semblance that can tell the future. If that was even possible surely some variation of it would have appeared at some point in the past._

Ruby started walking to her left, and Alizarin copied her.

 _Why isn't he going on the offensive?_

She started walking to her right, and flipped Crescent Rose so that the scythe head was on her right rather than her left. It was then that she caught it, the small twitch of his head. It was minute, but she caught it. The truth clicked into place as she caught it.

The driver smiled, _Of course he was lying. Why wouldn't he be? It would appear to everyone that he was telling the truth._

Ruby started thinking trying to formulate a plan with the new information. Her eyes skimmed across the rooftop categorizing what there was on it. _Weiss, Winter, air conditioning units, stairway cover,_ her eyes flitted between the stairway cover and the air conditioning units, _that might work, but first to test my theory._

Ruby activated her Semblance, collapsed Crescent Rose, and placed it on her back before spinning, going into a crouch and scooping up a pebble off the roof when her back was to Alizarin, and standing up as she returned to the direction she had been originally facing. As she completed her spin she ran straight towards her opponent.

Five feet away she leaped into a spinning flip that carried her over the faunus and landed facing towards him. She flung the pebble she had picked up and struck him in the face with it as he turned towards her. While he was disoriented, Ruby drew her sweetheart, and ran towards him.

Still recovering from the surprise of the pebble to the face, Alizarin barely managed to keep Ruby at bay as she kept swinging at him, using the rebound of each strike to flow into another one. This as well as precisely timed shots of Crescent Rose increased the speeds of her attacks each time she swung. Each time Ruby struck him, he staggered back a little going in the direction the scythe wielder wanted him to.

Finally he recovered about ten feet away from the air conditioning units, and pushed away a swing from Crescent Rose. As soon as he did so, he lunged forward and jabbed at Ruby with his metal arm, his hand opened as if he was reaching out for something. As he did so a red glow came from the palm of his hand and the next thing the driver knew she was picking herself up off the roof after being struck by a fireball that sent her flying back into the door of the stairway cover.

Alizarin opened his mouth to say something, but Ruby ignored him and planted the tip of Crescent Rose's blade in the roof, and fired at him repeatedly. Alizarin went on the defensive blocking the rounds both with his arm and his aura and when he wasn't fast enough with his arm solely his aura.

Ruby heard the click as Crescent Rose ran dry. She quickly ejected the magazine, and slammed in a cross-marked clip. Following this she ripped Crescent Rose out of the ground, ran forward, and fired her scythe behind her. As she landed from the small skip provided by firing the rifle part of her scythe, she spun, threw Crescent Rose at him, continued the spin, and sprinted back towards the door of the stairway cover. As she did so, she pushed her Semblance as well as her body to their limits. Ten feet from the door, she leaped.

Planting her feet on the door, her inertia pushed her into a crouch which she used her increased leg strength to push off of the door, feeling it crumple inwards slightly as she did so, and propel herself straight towards the lion faunus.

* * *

Alizarin batted aside Crescent Rose. As he refocused and stood back up from the hunch he'd put himself in to present a smaller target for the flying scythe, his sixth sense informed him of multiple metal objects flying towards him at a high velocity.

He snapped his head up, and widened his eyes as he saw a large white missile with a red tip flying straight at him.

* * *

Ruby's arm caught Alizarin around his midriff, wrapped around him, and picked him up off his feet. The throwing knife Ruby had drawn as she leaped at the door glanced off of Alizarin's aura. Undismayed, Ruby drew her arm back and stabbed him three more times.

The first two times were blocked by aura, but the aura block was noticeably weaker each time. The third time she faced resistance in the beginning but finally broke through his aura and sunk into his back right where his kidney was. As soon as she felt the knife sink up to its hilt she drew the blade along his back and his side until it was now embedded in his stomach. Just as this happened, Alizarin hit an air conditioning unit.

Ruby went to stand up until she felt a hand clasp around her wrist. She looked down and saw Alizarin staring at her.

When he spoke it was with evident pain in his voice, "Please, just end it for me. For so long, I've wanted out of what the White Fang has become, but I swore years ago to serve it and my pride forbids me from breaking that oath. So – damn that hurts – for years, I've hoped someone would finally succeed in killing me. So please finish it."

Looking at the wound she'd inflicted upon the once proud faunus and knowing it would be fatal anyway, she drew her last knife from the harness on her ankle and pulled his head forward. Placing the knife against the soft spot on the back of his head, Ruby looked him in the eyes, "I don't drink alcohol, so next time I see you, you better be greeting me with a club soda. Okay?"

Alizarin smiled at her a twinkle in his eye despite the pain he was in, "You got it, but let's hope that's not for years to come, little one. Otherwise what mistakes will I tease you about?"

The redhead smiled, and Alizarin nodded, "Finish it, little one."

Ruby nodded and pushed the knife in.

* * *

The bullhead slowly descended to the backyard of the Schnee house in Vale. As soon as it did Winter gave Ruby a quick hug, and jumped out, running inside. Ruby turned from where she was standing and looked at Weiss who was just staring out at the backyard.

"Weiss, you gotta get out. I need to see this bullhead retur-"

"How did you do it, Ruby?"

"What?" Ruby was confused both by the question and the fact that Weiss knew her name.

"I didn't cover my ears, I heard the entire thing. What was his real Semblance? How did you beat him?"

Ruby repeated the word cookies several times in her head before answering, "He could sense all metal around him. This enabled him to know the direction an opponent was going to attack from because he could detect the metal in their weapon. This made it seem like he could tell the future in a limited manner but in reality he was merely responding to the stimuli provided by his Semblance. I figured it out when I flipped the way I was holding Crescent Rose because his eyes were slightly off focus and his head was following my sweetheart."

"Your sweetheart?"

"Crescent Rose, duh." Ruby said figuring that explained everything. " Anyway, in order to distract him, I threw the biggest piece of metal I had on me, Crescent Rose, at him. He had to focus on defending himself from the gigantic scythe flying at himself, and meanwhile I was able to carry out the rest of my plan since he was occupied which involved throwing myself at him and stabbing him repeatedly with my small throwing knife."

Weiss shook her head, more than likely at the craziness of Ruby's plan, and then jumped out of the bullhead.

* * *

The next morning, Ruby watched Weiss climb the ramp that lead into the phoenix that would take her home, and then turned to look at Winter who had ridden up front on the trip to the airfield.

Winter stared out the windshield of the sedan for a moment, "Silver, do me a favor."

"Anything within my power, Winter."

"Keep an eye on Weiss for me."

"Winter, the two of you live in Atlas, how -"

"She's coming here, to Vale, for a while...to attend Beacon, in fact."

Ruby gave Winter a perplexed look, "I didn't realize she could fight, but I thought she was going to be inheriting the business from your parents. What is she going to Beacon for?"

"She's running away to put it simply. I – there's been some things going on at home, and... she's decided that she needs to get away from it all for a while. She told father that if he didn't let her attend that she was going to disinherit herself, and she knew he wouldn't want to give up an asset that he had invested so much time and money on, so he agreed. And she can fight. She has a Multi Action Dust Rapier that she takes everywhere with her but I asked her to leave it because I knew you would be here to protect us, and I didn't think anything would happen. I was being foolish, huh?"

"Just a teensy tiny bit."

Winter smirked a little and smacked Ruby in the arm, before opening the door and starting to get out. Halfway out she sat back down, but left the door open, "Silver, if we were different people in different situations would you be willing to run away with me?"

Ruby was confused by this questions that Winter was asking feeling like she was missing something but answered without hesitating nonetheless, "Absolutely, why?"

"Just...no reason, just thought I would ask." Winter started climbing out of the car again.

Feeling like she desperately needed to, Ruby grabbed Winter's arm, pulled her back in and popped her mask off. Winter turned to look at her and widened her eyes as she saw Ruby's face for the first time, "My name is Ruby Rose." Ruby then leaned in a placed a gentle kiss on Winter's mouth.

Winter looked dumbfounded for a moment as Ruby pulled back. Slowly Winter smiled and brought her hands to her lips before slowly climbing out of the car and heading towards the door of the phoenix.

Ruby watched the airship pull in its ramp, and close its door before lifting off. The entire time she was unable to shake the feeling that she had missed her chance, and that Winter's questions had been a form of farewell rather than a goodbye. She also wasn't able to shake the feeling that she wasn't ever going to see Winter again.

* * *

Winter placed her hand against the window of the glass and watched as Silver, no, Ruby's car turned around and drove away before closing her eyes in an attempt to hold in the tears.

Winter felt Weiss come up behind her, and pull her into a hug, "Did you tell her?"

"Tell her which one?"

"Either, both, does it really matter?"

Winter shook her head, squeezing her eyes tighter as she felt the buildup of tears behind them, "No, I- I think she always knew I loved her, and I think she could tell that this was goodbye forever though."

"Winter it doesn't have to be for forever. If you'll just take the treatments and -"

"Weiss, even with the treatments, I only have a small chance of living, and even then the treatments themselves run the chance of killing me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in pain and misery. I want to live as long as I can able-bodied, and do as much as I can before I die."

Weiss pulled back and looked at Winter until Winter opened her eyes and looked at Weiss, "Please, Winter? If not for yourself, do it for me, and if not for me do it for Ruby. Please? I would hate to know that you just gave up rather than try to get better. If not then I understand, and I'm sure Ruby will too."

Winter furrowed her brow.

"I listened to everything that was said last night, trust me though, her secret is safe with me."

Winter nodded and then sighed in defeat, "I guess I can give the treatments a try."

Weiss pulled her younger sister back into the hug, "Thank you Winter, and who knows maybe you will get better."

* * *

 **A/N:** **Hey, guys! I'm back – George! Turn that off, no one wants to listen to** _ **I Will Survive!**_ **at the moment! So this chapter took a while to finish, it just refused to write itself. The last fight just didn't come out in a way that I'm comfortable with, in fact the entire chapter feels off to me, and honestly I have no idea where the whole Winter/Ruby thing came from. One moment I was going to be having Weiss step off the ramp and next thing I know Winter barges in and things went from there. To answer questions before they arise, a phoenix is a class of airship. I just didn't feel comfortable for them to be traveling in a bullhead over long distances.**

 **Now, Drednaught asked me if Ruby would be the only one who never went to Beacon, and the truth is I pushed the canon events back a few years, and while I don't intend on spitting out a copy of the show's events I do intend to use some of them as a diving board for convenience's sake.**

 **Once again I am sorry for being a little late but this chapter was a bitch and a half to write and when combined with a rather busy week, this happened. I know that doesn't excuse me but I am sorry, so until next time, ciao! Also thank you to all who favorited, and followed.**

 **Edit1: Forgot to thank people for favoriting and following.**

 **Edit2: Various typo and grammar fixes. Let me know if you catch any that I missed.**

 **Edit3: Because I'm a moron and still left Winter calling Ruby by her actual name before she knew it, in one place.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **One Month Later**

Ruby poured the Mistralian Slammer into a glass and placed it on the bar as a regular sat down, "Here you go, Duke."

After sliding Duke's card, opening a tab, and returning it, Ruby turned back to the conversation she'd been having with the scheduled bartender for the night, Charlotte "You're joking, right? Junior, seriously, asked you out on a date? Like not in a joking manner?"

Charlotte turned away from the customer she'd just finished serving and shrugged, before going on to the next one, "That was my reaction too. Your first comment is word for word the same as mine was."

Ruby shook her head, "How has he not realized that you're gay yet?"

Charlotte was seven years older than Ruby and had been working for Junior for almost as long, and in those seven years she had not been discrete in her preferences. She had waist length auburn hair, green eyes, and auburn cat ears on the top of her head. It was common for Charlotte to flirt with any girl who came by the bar, – even if she never acted on any of them, she'd been in a loving relationship with her girlfriend since the two had started their first year of secondary school, and been friends with her for years before that. It was also common for Charlotte to be dropped off at the bar by her girlfriend when she came into work.

 _Then again, Junior has never been that observant when it came to a person's sexuality,_ Ruby should know she'd had several girlfriends – two of them for extended periods of time – in the past and Junior had still been floored when the fact came up in conversation a few years ago.

* * *

A fifteen year old Ruby flung open the door to her and Junior's apartment and stormed in.

When the door handle collided with the wall, the sounds of pots being rattled, a gasp of pain, and shortly after what sounded like a "Fuck!", and chuckling could be heard from the kitchen. A few seconds later Junior's head popped out of the door to the kitchen and looked around before catching sight of Ruby, who by now had draped herself across an armchair with her legs over one arm and her head lying on the other.

Junior pushed through the doorway, wiping his hands on the apron he was wearing, and was followed shortly after by Roman. Junior sat on the couch in the apartment while Roman leaned against the side of Ruby's chair and looked down at her.

Ruby was focused on her thoughts but still managed to catch the tail end of what seemed to be a silent argument between Junior and Roman. When she did the two quickly ended it.

"So Red, what's bothering you?" Roman drawled, looking for all the world as if he couldn't care less as he examined his cuticles.

Ruby shot up in her seat and glared at the bowler hat wearing criminal, "My problem is that I just caught my girlfriend cheating on me...with a guy no less!"

Roman stood up and looked at Ruby an expression of real interest, and what could possibly be glee on his face. Roman stepped forward and shooed Junior further down the couch before sitting on the edge and leaning towards the teenager, his arms on his knees, "Ooh, teenager drama. Do tell."

The redhead sighed, and shook her head, her mood noticeably lighter after seeing Roman's clear interest in her gossip – then again, Roman did watch soap operas religiously and his favorite show was _The Old and The Lethargic_ so it wasn't like it was surprising, "So I've been going out with a girl named Olivia for the past couple months and after I finished up my training early today, I decided to go over and see if she wanted to go see a movie or something. Along the way, I decided to make a whole romantic date out of it. I stopped by a florist, and picked up a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates. I hurried over having already decided to take her out to an Atlesian restaurant after the movie. When I got to her parent's apartment, I slipped into the building behind a couple so I could surprise her and everything. I go up the stairs, I find her apartment, and I knock. A couple seconds later the door opens to show Olivia with her hair all mussed up, and her clothes askew. I'm confused of course but I don't wait and start to ask her if she wanted to go out for a movie and dinner, and the next thing I know some love struck looking boy walks up behind her and wraps his arms around her! The worst part of it all is that she then looked at me and told me that, and I'm quoting here, 'thanks for helping me, but we're through. I just wanted to experiment for a bit to make sure I wasn't gay.' The nerve of the girl!"

Roman sat back on the couch, clutching his stomach, and Ruby had no way to describe what he did other than as chortling.

Ruby's eyes widened at Roman's reaction, "What is so funny, Candlestick?!"

The criminal sat up, wiping his eyes as he did so, "One, never call me Candlestick again. Two, what's so funny is that you are taking this so seriously. I mean honestly, you've been going out for what two months? It's not like you have real feelings for her, right?"

"Well, no but that –"

"It does too matter! Now, you clearly haven't been crying. Now let me ask you this, are you sad because she cheated on you, or are you angry because she cheated on you?"

"Mostly angry, but –"

"Are you more angry because she hurt you, or because she had the nerve to cheat on you?"

"I-I-I- Junior! What do you think?!" For the first time since starting to talk to Roman, Ruby looked at Junior.

Junior's face was, to say the least, slack jawed. His eyes were glazed over and he was staring off into nothingness as if finally realizing something, and was looking over memories finding clues that he had missed in the past.

Roman snapped his fingers in front of Junior's face, snapping him out of whatever was wrong with him.

The broker shook his head, and looked at Ruby, what came out of his mouth next caused Ruby to face palm, and Roman to, literally, cackle with glee. "Ruby, you're gay?"

The teenager"s arms shot out in a bewildered gesture, "Out of all of that, what you got was that I'm gay? Junior, I've had _three_ girlfriends by this point! How did you not know!"

* * *

Ruby took three things out of that situation. 1) Junior was an oblivious idiot, hence her ringtone for him. 2) Her and Roman had very different views on matters of the heart. She was a firm believer that one should never play with another person's heart no matter the situation, while Roman was callous about them. And 3) Ruby wasn't going to have another girlfriend until she was older and both she and they were a little more mature. If Ruby saw Winter again she would try to change it, although she did have a nagging feeling that she wouldn't, but to this day she hadn't had another since what she called the Olivia Incident.

The driver continued working for another half hour or so, making sure to log all of the tabs she opened in under Charlotte's name to make sure she got the tips, until she saw Junior gesturing for her from the stairs in the back.

The redhead handed the drink she'd just finished making to a customer before letting Charlotte know she was leaving, and heading back towards Roman.

Ruby wiped her hands on her jeans as she approached him, "What's up, J-man?"

Junior sighed, "Really? J-man? You give the worst nicknames ever, you realize that right? Remember the one you tried to give Roman, what was it again Candlewick or something like that?"

The teenager snapped him with the towel she had on her shoulder, "Shut up. First of all, it was Candlestick, not Candlewick. Second of all, you have no right to speak of embarrassing things, Mr. Let's-Ask-The-Blatant-Lesbian-In-A-Loving-And-Long-Lasting-Relationship out on a date."

"See, that's what I was talking about horrible at naming things," Junior shot back, otherwise completely ignoring Ruby's barb. "Your names are either horribly stupid or they're horrendously long. Anyways, I didn't call you over here to trade jabs with you. Your scroll's been going off up in the apartment for the past ten minutes. Go answer it or I'm going to smash it with a hammer."

"Ha! As if you could, I don't believe for a second you own one. Remember that time you tried to hang a painting in your apartment and had to ask Alexander, the bartender at the time, to bring tools and do it, because you didn't know how to do it or have the necessary things to do it with?" Ruby said as she jogged past him.

The broker didn't bother responding, he just grabbed the towel off her shoulder and smacked her in the back with it.

The redhead threw her head back and laughed as she went up the stairs, "Junior!"

"What?"

"Just thought you should know in case you didn't get the message last night, Charlotte's a lesbian...and you also hit like a girl!"

"Quiet, She-Demon!"

Ruby opened the door to Junior's apartment and strode in still chuckling. Picking up her scroll, she saw she had missed quite a few calls, and as she went to check who they were from, she got another one. Glancing at the caller ID, she answered, "What's up, Cinder?"

"Where were you?"

"Uhh, bartending while I talked to a friend. Could you sound anymore like a possessive girlfriend? Because if that's how you're going to act, we really need to rework the terms of our relationship. I expect to get the benefits of a romantic relationship if I'm going to be dealing with the cons of one."

The driver could hear Cinder sigh on the other side of the scroll, "Sorry. You said if I'm in your area and I need something to call, correct?"

"Yeeeeah, but I was just joking if -"

"No, it's nothing like that. I'm coming to Vale for about a day to iron out the details of my deal with the White Fang, and my employer is sending two subordinates with me."

"Okay, what do you need?"

"I don't have full confidence that the two could keep me safe were it to come to a fight."

"So you need me to pick you up and drive you to the meeting?"

"No. There is an agreed upon limit of two people other than the representative of the two parties."

"Ah. You don't trust them to hold to that agreement?"

"No, as a result I need you to go to the meeting, preferably disguised, and be another set of eyes and another weapon if one is needed."

"I can do that, easily. But first, there's the small matter of a fee, and when all of this is going down."

* * *

Ruby strolled into Junior's bar a couple days later. She still had a little bit until the actual meeting, and was planning on using that time to scout out the bar and find a place to set up where she would be able to see the meeting, as well as the door.

Ruby walked over to the bar and stopped opposite of Charlotte, "'Ello 'Ello, it's been quite awhile hasn't it Charla-dear?"

The bartender looked up from the counter she had been wiping and shot Ruby a beaming grin, "Viola? Is that really you? Where have you been lately?"

The not-so-red-redhead grinned back and raised her arms as if presenting herself to an audience, "The one and only. Finally managed to work my way back here after I passed out on a party yacht in Patch and woke up on some forsaken docks in some backwater in Atlas."

"Viola" was an alias that Ruby would take on at some points when she needed to appear in disguise without anyone actually noticing that she was disguised. Viola had made a small name for herself during her brief residence in Vale for being at the center of every party and when that party broke up or a fight happened it was likely that Viola was either responsible, in some way probably by egging people on, or in the center of it herself. After staying in Vale for six months, Viola packed up and left. Since then she'd made several trips to Vale claiming that she was "on a circuit", jumping from city to city to sample the differences in culture and society.

Viola was usually seen in a white t-shirt, under a leather jacket that had metal studs down the outside of the sleeves, a pair of black jeans, and converse shoes. Viola had royal purple hair, and usually had her eyebrow "pierced", this time it was a clip on eyebrow ring with a diamond on it, with a matching lip ring. To top it all off was the fact that she always had some temporary face tattoo, this time it was an overhead view of a dragon spreading its wings.

To ensure that no one recognized her, Ruby had also hired someone to make her a realistic set of prosthetic face parts to give her a completely different facial structure after some careful makeup and spoke with an accent.

Charlotte, and Junior were the only two who knew that Viola also happened to be Ruby. Charlotte leaned against the bartop, and smiled at the purple haired girl, "So what will it be tonight, 7&7, whiskey sour, what?"

"Actually, I just want a Rum and Coke for tonight, Charla-dear. I'm just relaxing tonight."

"Uh-huh, we'll see how long that lasts. I give you thirty minutes before you hear of a party that catches your attention and you're out the door." The bartender slid Ruby's drink, which was really just a coke that Charlotte had used some sleight of hand to make in order to give the appearance of adding the Rum to.

"Haha, I'll talk to you later sweetheart," the disguised girl turned and scanned the bar before heading towards the stairs on the side that lead up to the second floor of the bar. After getting to the second floor, Ruby looked around at all of the tables that were on the upper floor. It wasn't long before the former-redhead found both of the things she was looking for.

Ruby sauntered over to a table in a corner that overlooked the dance floor, as well as the door. Sitting at the table was a girl, the driver wouldn't have put her at more than two years older than Ruby herself. She had on heeled black boots, purple stockings that turned to black as they went up her legs and had what was likely her personal emblem, black ribbons on each arm, a separate black sleeve that had a silver armband around her upper left arm, a white sleeveless undershirt with a black vest with coattails and only one button over it, and matching white shorts, and to finish it off was a black bow on her head.

The girl had long black hair, an olive complexion, and amber eyes that were upturned at the outside, and reminded the driver of Cinder.

The black haired girl was currently reading a book, judging by what Ruby could see of the cover was an old Vacuan tale about a boy who got lost in the desert and was rescued by a tribe of nomads.

Ruby stopped beside the table and just stood there, after a moment the girl looked up at Ruby.

Ruby nodded at one of the empty chairs around the table, "Mind if I sit there?"

The girl looked at Ruby for a few more seconds, shrugged, and went back to her book.

After pulling out a chair, and sitting down, the former-redhead drew out her scroll and started to pretend to play a game on it while nursing her drink. In reality though the driver was watching the other girl. After a few minutes, Ruby's first suspicion was proven correct. The girl was a faunus, something made clear by the fact that every now and then her bow would twitch like a pair of cat ears. A little later Ruby saw the other girl look over the top of her book and tense up.

Following the girl's gaze Ruby saw Cinder and a dark skinned girl with green hair and red eyes, and a pale boy with gray hair and matching eyes, walk in and stalk over to a table at which sat a bull faunus in a black outfit with brown and red hair wearing a Grimm mask.

Ruby chuckled to herself, _Oh the things Junior can get away with._

The truth was Junior was a neutral party in a society embroiled in so many different types of conflicts. From conflicts like those between business rivals to that between the criminal organizations and those who opposed them. Junior claimed every building within a three block radius of the bar as under his protection – although he never demanded protection money from the property owners, in reality it was more of a formality than anything else-, and it was well known that if anyone broached the peace within that area, hell would come down on them and for the most part it was a silent agreement followed by everyone. The criminals followed it because it gave them a place that they could meet without fear of someone breaking any truce that may be in action and a place to just cool down. The hunters and law enforcement allowed it because it created a place they didn't have to worry about patrolling. And everyone abided by it because no one could afford to lose access to Junior's wealth of information. Junior was just as vital to those on the right side of the law for providing them with information about criminals and their activities as he was to the criminals for providing them with information on various things. Of course everything came at a price.

Ruby continued to watch the girl. Since Cinder's arrival, the girl had become markedly more tense and was clearly only pretending to read. Her eyes, meanwhile, were fixated on the meeting currently going on.

Ruby closed out of the game she had been pretending to play and typed out a message on it before sliding it across the table in front of the other girl and tapping on the table to get her attention.

The girl looked down at the scroll, read what it said, and, much to Ruby's disbelief, tensed up even more. The girl glanced from the scroll to Ruby to the meeting on the ground floor and back to Ruby. She quickly typed something out on it and slid it back to Ruby before "returning" to her book, and pointedly turning a page.

Ruby looked at the message and shook her head.

 _ **V:**_ _If you're going to pretend to read, you should at least turn the page now and then._

 _ **B:**_ _Mind your own business._

The driver looked up at the girl whose name she assumed started with a B, "You know, Cinder likely won't be pleased when she hears that your boss didn't keep to the agreement."

B glared at Ruby for a second before returning to watching the meeting.

"So what's up with the bow? Why hide who you are like you're ashamed of being a Faunus?"

And...there was the glare again, "I'm not ashamed of being a Faunus."

Ruby leaned forward and set her arms on the table when she spoke next she made sure to carefully enunciate every syllable, "Then why wear the bow?"

B slammed her book on the table, "Because I don't want to be judged for what I am but for who I am!"

Ruby leaned back in her seat and scratched the side of her nose, "No, no, you're right. People shouldn't treat you badly for being a faunus, they should just treat you badly for being a criminal and soon to be terrorist who is part of an organization that has made several attempts on the lives of the family members of a man merely because his company treats the people who work there of their own accord poorly. Meanwhile you completely ignore the fact that the man whose family you are targeting is only part of the problem and in fact has done much to change the company from what it used to be under his father's control."

B's eyes had widened at the beginning, "What do you mean soon to be terrorist?"

Ruby's eyes narrowed, "You don't know? Cinder and your boss are down there arranging for you to steal a trainload of Schnee dust and various other nefarious schemes all of which include deaths of innocents and/or destruction of private property and you don't know?"

The black haired girl shook her head. The denial in her eyes couldn't have been more obvious, "No, that's...you're wrong. Adam would never work for a human, and besides we don't do things like that. Anyways how do you know?"

The drivers eyes flitted over to where the meeting was being held. Ruby stood up, and looked at B, "I know a lot of things. I personally know several of the Schnees. I know what's being discussed in that meeting down there. I know what Cinder is planning on having the White Fang do for her and extrapolating from what I heard that your boss, Adam I suppose,.wants I know that the he is planning on making big changes in how the White Fang operates. Judging from your reaction, I know you don't agree with what the White Fang is about to do and from the way you were holding yourself when I first saw you, you've probably already had problems with what they were already doing recently. I also know that your excuse is bullnanny. You may claim that you want people to judge you for who you are, not what you are. The truth is your faunus heritage is part of who you are. It's had just as much a part in forming who you are, as anything else. Hiding that, is not only a denial of who you are but you can't truly claim to be a supporter of Faunus Rights if you can't even bring yourself to admit that you are a faunus."

Ruby reached over and grabbed B's scroll off the table and then typed out the address for one of Ruby's apartments, "I know you're confused and conflicted right now but when the time comes, drop by."

Ruby turned and left seeing as how the meeting had been ending when she stood up.

As she was heading out the door, she nodded at Charlotte.

Charlotte nodded back..

The redhead-turned-purplehead spun and cupped her hands around her mouth, "Sorry Charla, but it took a bit longer than you guessed. Be a dear and close out my tab, would you?" Ruby turned back forward, and raised her fist as if in victory, "And off to Vacuo I go!"

* * *

 **Eight Days Later**

 _Knock-knock-knock_

Ruby stood up and set her bowl of popcorn on the table, before pausing the current episode of _Nurse Who_ and walking over to her door clad in sky blue pajama pants covered in rubber ducks, and a shirt that went halfway down her thighs that showed a red phone booth with the words "It's smaller on the outside" on it.

Ruby peered through her peephole, and then opened the door. On the other side was the girl from the bar. She was wearing the same outfit from before but this time she also had what looked to Ruby to be a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe on her back.

Ruby had decided to, after ruminating on it, stay in the apartment that she had given B the address to rather than just going over to check if the girl had stopped by or not every day and leaving the door unlocked.

B looked at Ruby, "My name is Blake, and I need a place to stay."

 **A/N:** **So there's that chapter. Sorry this one was late as well. Remember last chapter how I said that I had been busy? Well, I was busy that week, last week, and this week because my brother and his wife were moving and I was helping them move and spending some time with them since them and my mom are like the only people that I actually like in my family. Yay, horrible families!**

 **Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed, and I forgot to say it last chapter so thanks to Drednaught for reviewing.**

 **Thanks to Sienim1es for pointing out my mistake, last chapter, where I accidentally had Winter calling Ruby by her proper name in the car before she knew it, it is now fixed. Sienim, I would have thanked you in a PM as well, but you have to be a member for me to reply to your review. If anyone else catches errors like that please let me know. I would also like to thank A Simple Cup for pointing out an identical instance during Ruby and Winter's dance at the gala. The two of them saved me from having to catch those mistakes while I was editing the prologue and following chapters. And by editing, I only meant that I was fixing some grammar errors and typos. Nothing was actually changed in the chapters themselves.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Ruby stepped aside and held the door open for Blake.

As the faunus stepped in Ruby realized that Blake didn't have her ears covered by the bow like she had at the bar. Her second set of ears were covered in a dark purple fur. If Ruby had to guess Blake was likely a panther faunus.

Blake glanced at the driver, "I'm sorry to barge in like this but I was given this address by a girl at-"

Ruby chuckled and scratched the back of her head, "Don't worry about it. That was actually me."

The former White Fang member examined the redhead a bit closer, "Really? That was you?"

Ruby nodded vigorously, "Yeah, I was in disguise. Used some prosthetic face parts, and make up. Dyed my hair with a temporary dye, used contacts to change my eye colour, and a fake accent."

"You don't smell the same."

The driver shrugged nonchalantly, "Eh, you'd be amazed at what using a different perfume and shampoo will do to help disguise your scent."

The faunus nodded and turned to face the rest of the apartment.

Ruby took a step forward, "This is one of my spare apartments. Over there you have the big bedroom which I've cleaned out for you to use. Then you have the kitchen, bathroom, the smaller bedroom where I've been sleeping recently. There's ten thousand lien in cash in an envelope on the counter in the kitchen. The tv has satellite with the full package. I built a new computer, installed the necessities on it and set up an account for you. The fridge, and cupboards are all fully stocked. And...that should be everything." Every time she mentioned something she pointed either at it or in its general direction. "You're free to stay for as long as you need. Everything was bought and paid for under an alias so no one should be able to link it together and find you here. To finish off the tour, the key is on the coffee table. Now, I'm off to Junior's bar to collect my part of the pool."

"Pool?"

"Eh, we may or may not have had a pool going on whether or not you were going to be by and when."

The catgirl gave Ruby a curious look before shaking her head, "You bet on me?"

"Trust me, we bet on everything at some point or another...Those bastards! They probably bet on the Cinder job and didn't let me in on it."

The redhead started walking towards the door.

"You're going out in that?"

Ruby looked down at her outfit, "Yeah. Why?"

"Just curious."

Ruby grabbed her keys off the hook beside the door and started closing the the door before she was interrupted once again.

"Hey! I-I never got your name. Also why are you helping me?"

Ruby shrugged, "I'm Ruby, and why shouldn't I help you?" With that Ruby shut the door and was on her way.

* * *

 **Four Days Later**

Ruby slammed her head down on the bar. "That girl is going to drive me insane," Her voice muffled by the bar.

"Pick your head up, I need to wipe there."

"It's clean...or at least I hope it is." Nonetheless the redhead lifted her head up a couple inches waited until Charlotte was finished wiping there and then set it back down.

Ruby heard Charlotte walk off as she finished cleaning and then walk back. The driver sat up and looked at the auburn beauty.

The bartender looked Ruby up and down before leaning against her side of the bar and cocking her hips, "Now, what's your problem?"

The redhead sighed and scratched the bridge of her nose, "That girl, Blake. You know, the one I convinced to leave the White Fang?"

"You may have mentioned her once or twice." It was actually more like ten or twelve, but who was counting?

"All she's done is sit around, brood, and read. It's like she's aimless! If I had to meet a broody, guilty female, why couldn't it be Carmilla?! At least I know she's a lesbian, and she's got that whole sexy female vampire thing going for her even if she is broody."

"One, Carmilla is a fictional character. Two," Charlotte shrugged, "Maybe she is."

Ruby's face twisted in confusion, "Huh? I just went on a whole little rant there, you can't throw out some cryptic little statement like that and expect me to know what you're talking about."

Charlotte rolled her eyes before going over to take care of a customer and returning, "You said she's aimless. Maybe she is. She was likely in the White Fang from a young age. It probably became the focus of her entire life. Now that she's lost that, it's likely that she feels as if she doesn't have a purpose anymore."

"Well what am I supposed to do about that? Go out and find her a new purpose in life? I know I'll go to the Lost and Found, maybe they have one there. Oh, oh, even better, I'll go to the Pound and adopt one!"

The bartender slapped her in the arm with the towel, "Get outta here. It's starting to get busy in here and I have customers to take care of."

* * *

The door to Ruby's main apartment slowly swung open to reveal the redhead with her arms laden with groceries, her scroll pinned between her head and her shoulder, her balancing on one foot while the other leg was stuck out in front of her and her keys in her mouth. She raised her arms triumphantly and made a triumphant "Haha" sound...or at least tried to. What actually came out was garbled by the keys still in her mouth.

 _"What was that?"_

The driver quickly shuffled over to her dining room table and set the groceries on the table. She then grabbed her phone and spit her keys out on the table, "That, my dear Roman, was the sound of me successfully unlocking my door with my mouth. Junior owes me twenty lien."

 _"You know you're never going to get that out of him, right?"_

"I know. He still owes me for like the last four bets we made. Nevertheless I like to dream...and their good for getting him to do favors for me in exchange."

 _"Alright, I have to go. Cinder wants me to take out some of Junior's goons and steal some Dust with her watching as some sort of evaluation or some such shit."_

"Oooh, have fun with that."

 _"How did you survive with her living in your apartment for several weeks?"_

"With magi-"

 _"Roman, where are you?!"_ Ruby could just make out the sound of Cinder's voice on the other end.

 _"I'M ON MY WAY! Calm down, you crazy broad."_

After shaking her head and hanging up, Ruby set her scroll on the table and started going through the bags, "Now, where did that blasted cashier put the cookie dough mix."

" _Ahem_."

Ruby spun around, drawing her handgun from it's holster on her lower back underneath the denim jacket she was wearing, and pointed it at the source of the noise.

Standing in the doorway of her kitchen was a man. He wore a gray shirt with a black inside lining, sleeves rolled halfway up his forearm, and long shirt tails in the back. This was accompanied by black dress pants and black dress shoes, bracelets on each wrist, and a tattered red cloak that only went to just above his knees. He had dark gray hair, and what looked like it could possibly be a starting attempt at growing a beard. He was also holding a furry, orange, and very fat cat in his arms.

"Most people say 'hello' and 'thank you for letting my cat back into the apartment' with words, not by pointing a gun at them."

"First off, I only say hello to people that I want to welcome. You are most definitely not part of that group. Second, that's not Mr. Snuggles. He's down visiting with Mrs. Velcon. What do you want Qrow?"

"Can't a tired old hunter, like myself, come and visit his protege?"

"After the way things ended two years ago? No, you don't have that right. Now, I'll only say this one more time, and if you don't answer we're going to see which one of us is the better fighter these days. _What do you want?"_

Qrow sighed, walked over to the window that led to the fire escape, and threw the cat out onto it before shutting the window, and turning back to Ruby. The entire time Ruby kept her gun trained on him.

"Ruby, I know things didn't end well between us-"

"Yeah, because that wasn't already blatantly obvious."

"-but I need your help."

The redhead threw her head back and laughed...and laughed...and laughed. A couple of minutes later when her laughter finally subsided, she had lowered her gun but only because she was hunched over, clutching her side with her free hand, and had tears of mirth running down her face. She stood up, and wiped her eyes. "You had me going there for a second. I almost believed you," As the scythe-wielder said this she pointed at the older man.

Qrow looked her in the eye, his face dead serious, "Ruby, I'm not joking. I honestly need your assistance."

The driver quickly sobered up, "The gall of you. What in all of Remnant, could give you the right to ask me for a favor? You know what? I don't want to know. I don't want to know what made you think you could come in here and ask for my help. I don't want to know what you, of all people, could need help with. I don't even want to know how you've been for the past two years. All I want is for you to get out of my home, to get out of my life, and to never speak to me again. Got it?"

"What if I told you that my higher ups had given me a blank check for this operation, and I was willing to pay any price you named for your help?"

"I'd tell you to go to hell, after I ripped up the check of course," her voice was hard and unrelenting.

"And if I told you that the completion, or lack thereof, of this mission could lead to the deaths of millions of people here in Vale?"

"My response would remain the same," The steel in her voice this time was definitely forced. She knew it, Qrow knew it, and she knew that Qrow knew it.

"No, you wouldn't. You and I both know that you care too much, not just for the city or kingdom, but for the people within it, to allow something to happen to them when you could have prevented it."

Ruby locked eyes with him. She poured as much contempt into her voice as she possibly could, "I hate you with every fibre of my being. I figured you should know that before we go any further."

The Hunter shrugged, seeming not to be bothered by his former prodigy's words, "And I couldn't possibly be more disappointed with what you have become. Neither of which really matter so long as they don't interfere with the mission."

Outwardly, Ruby appeared fine with what Qrow had said but inwardly she flinched. Hearing those words from someone she had admired for so long bit deeper than she would ever admit. The only consolation she got was the fact that she knew she had burned Qrow just as badly by saying that she hated him.

 _It's as they say though,_ Ruby thought, _those who know you best can hurt you the worst._

* * *

Ruby stepped through her kitchen door back into the living room. Clutched in her hands was a cup of tea, which she was stirring with a spoon as she walked to her seat in one of the armchairs.

Qrow stood up from his spot on the couch and reached out as if to take the glass of tea.

The redhead stopped, standing in front of where she had planned on sitting. She raised one eyebrow in a questioning manner, and stuck the spoon in her mouth. She then stood there, staring at her unwelcome guest, before slowly pulling her spoon out from between her lips. "Did you seriously think this was for you?"

Semi-beardo, as Ruby had mentally dubbed him for his half-assed attempt at growing a beard- yes, she knew it was childish. Did she care? Most definitely not. - straightened up to his

full height, and lowered his hands. "I had assumed that, yes."

"Ahh," Ruby tilted her head back as she said this but left her lower jaw in place, making it appear as if it was actually her upper jaw that was pivoting rather than the lower one. She closed her mouth, and pointed her spoon at Qrow, "See, there's the problem. You assumed. You know what they say about assuming. It makes a butt out of you and a butt out of me. In this case, you're a butt because you assumed I would make you a cup of tea and made me appear rude for not doing so, and I _seem_ like a butt, despite the fact that I'm not, because I didn't make you a cup of tea."

"Well, it is rude-"

The driver fixed him with a glare, "You broke into my home, and brought a strange cat into it. Which I should point out, you threw out onto the fire escape despite the fact that it was likely the pet of someone in this building. If you wanted a cup of tea, you should have made yourself some, rather than try to make a dramatic entrance, or since you were already here, a dramatic reveal."

Qrow opened his mouth as if to say something, closed it, and then sat back down, his eyes flicking to the window for a moment.

Ruby waved her hand, dismissively, at him, "Don't worry about the cat. You merely sped up its journey to Mrs. Velcon's apartment. Now what do you want, and if you say a cup of tea I _will_ throw my spoon at you, understand? We also need to discuss prices."

The older man raised an eyebrow at her, "Throwing all etiquette out of the window, aren't you?"

The driver narrowed her eyes at him, "I think you should just be glad that I haven't thrown _you_ out of the window...yet. But fine, if you want the pleasantries, here they are. How have you been lately?"

"Well-"

"Oh, that's so sad. I really feel for you. I've been well, thanks for asking. Hasn't the weather been rather nice of late?"

"Wh-"

"Really? I think it's been fantastic. Well, I guess it's a good thing that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Now you wanted my help with something?"

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to get this over with, and you out of my home and life as quickly as possible. Which happens to be what I tried to tell you to do earlier."

"Ruby, it doesn't have to be this way."

"It really does Qrow."

Qrow squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them once more, both his eyes and his tone screamed resignation, "Alright, Ruby." The hunter plugged his scroll into the data port on the table, and pulled up a hologram of a compound. The compound shown consisted of walls surround a complex of buildings connected by hallways, and only one entrance into it. Underneath the buildings was a basement level which was more akin to a rabbit warren than a basement. "This is a compound just outside of Vale's northwest border. I need your help getting all of the files off of the complex's computer network."

"You need my help with such a routine operation? You have to know someone among the Hunters who you could have asked for that kind of assistance." Ruby said with one eyebrow raised towards Qrow.

"None that I trust to be as competent as you are, Ruby."

The redhead nodded skeptically, "Mm-hm, don't think buttering me up is going to lower my price any." She turned her head back to the hologram on the table, "Alright, I assume you've already memorized the layout of this building?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Where's the server room?"

The hunter selected one of the rooms in the complex's basement, and created a larger copy of it next to the hologram of the entire complex. "Right here, what do you need this for though?" He looked at her for a moment while she studied the hologram completely silent, "Ruby?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry. Um, what kind of operation are we looking to carry out? Are we going for a silent approach or does it not matter?"

"It doesn't really matter, we're going to set the place to blow before we leave anyways. You never answered my question."

The driver highlighted one of the walls of a building and then the floor of the room on the other side of it, "If we blow a hole in this wall, and then one in this floor we should be able to drop down into a hallway just on a short way down from the server room. Once we reach it, we can pull the drives from the servers, stuff them in duffel bags, and exfiltrate with them." She highlighted a series of halls that led first to what Ruby could only guess was some sort of generator room and from there to a hallway on the other side of the complex from the first wall she had highlighted. "We should then be able to rig, what I'm assuming, is a generator room of sorts to blow," She glanced at Qrow for affirmation and continued when he gave her a nod, " Head here, blow a hole in the roof of this hallway into the room beyond, and then a hole in the wall of that room to get out of the building. From there it should be easy to get over the compound wall, and to disappear into the woods on the other side. After we get back, we can use an abandoned building to perform the transfer from the drives to our own, and then wipe, and ditch the drives."

"You want to steal their entire server room full of hard drives?"

Ruby nodded, "Anything important would have been saved to the complex's network to ensure that it wouldn't be lost in the case that some idiot managed to mess up the computer they were using meaning it would all be saved on those drives. Transferring the entire network worth of data would take too long to do without taking too much risk and if we tried to pick and choose we would likely miss something important by not realizing what it was. By taking the entire system, we'll have extra time to move everything over, and if they have some hidden program designed to send the ip address of whatever computer uses the information on the drives to another computer - which I'll admit is unlikely but wouldn't be the first time I've had something like that happen - we can find it and get rid of it before moving everything over." _and I can create my own copies of all of this while I make yours_ "This gives your bosses plausible deniability as well as make it harder for whoever we're taking this information from to find out who exactly has it hence the use of the apartment building - preferably inhabited to make it harder for people to find it just by the people going in and out of the building that day. A person with the right skills," _and/or connections such as moi,_ "would be able to wipe any outside camera footage from the footage of the surrounding area...sorry, I kind of got carried away with this didn't I?" Ruby rubbed the back of her head, "I've kind of gotten used to leading and planning operations such as this."

Her former mentor shrugged, "Don't worry about it. I was going to ask how you would have gone about something like this anyways, since I figured by now you would likely be better at this than I am...and I was right." He looked at his watch and stood up, "Alright, I have to get going, I'll get things sorted out equipment, transportation wise that kind of thing. Get the apartment building and computer stuff set up. That scroll has everything you'll need to know for now on it. I brought it here to leave with you, and I'll send the details such for our meet up point on it. The operation will more than likely happen two days from now."

Ruby quickly stood up to stop him. "Whoawhoawhoa! Where do you think you're going? We still have to talk about my price, and I want to know what this information is and what is so important about it."

"What's your price then?"

"Ten million."

Qrow froze in his spot, "You're joking, right?"  
The younger scythe-wielder shrugged, " You said I could name any price. That's my price. Now take it or leave it."

The older hunter deflated, "Fine." He then turned as if to leave.

Ruby grabbed his upper arm. "You _still_ haven't told me what this information is."

Qrow went to speak, paused, and then seemed to brighten as he came to, what Ruby could only guess, was a realization. In fact, he reminded her of a character from a children's cartoon who suddenly has a bright idea and a light bulb goes off above their head. He turned back to face her fully, the grin on his face putting Ruby off, "You see, Ruby. The thing is this information is kinda classified need-to-know aaand you... well, you don't need-to-know."

This time it was the driver who froze, "Qrow, I'm about to risk my life for this information. The least you could do is let me know what it's about."

The hunter shrugged, "Two years ago, I would have told you. Now, I don't trust you enough."

Ruby threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, "I'm the same person I was back then!"

Qrow's expression darkened, "You're right. You are, and that's the problem. You're someone who looks out for those she's loyal to, and would never do anything to potentially endanger them. The problem though is that two years ago, you showed exactly where your loyalties lie. Sadly enough, that's not with me. I can't trust you now to run off to Junior with the information, and leave me out to dry. This information is too important to fall into the wrong hands and as much as it pains me to say this, if you and Junior have it then it more than likely eventually will."

Qrow turned and left Ruby's home. Leaving behind a shell-shocked Ruby and a silent room.

Ruby plopped down in her chair and just stared at the wall for a while. Her shock at Qrow's words slowly turned into anger which only strengthened her resolve to get her hands on her own copy of whatever information they were trying to retrieve. Although, contrary to what Qrow believed, Ruby planned on going through the information on her own, and if she deemed it too dangerous to the lives of the people in Vale, she had every intention of getting rid of it and never letting Junior or anyone else know anything else about it.

* * *

She continued like this for a while her thoughts eventually becoming a repeating cycle until her scroll chimed an alert. After realizing what day it was, she remembered her conversation with Charlotte over Blake and got a great idea. Grabbing her keys off of the dining room table, she rushed out the door.

Ruby quietly opened the door to the apartment Blake was staying in and snuck in, closing the door behind her. She stopped and listened for a moment...nothing. She glanced around and...didn't see Blake anywhere. She started to stealthily walk across the living area towards the door of Blake's room. She got to the edge of the open doorway,jumped in front of the open door, held her hands out and screamed, "BOO-AAGH!"

The redhead looked up from where she was sitting on the floor due to jumping backwards in fright.

The faunus looked down at her with the corner of her lip turned up slightly in the beginning of a smile before it disappeared, "You do realize that you can't sneak up on a cat faunus right?"

"I guess I know that now! I didn't know that before!"

"Really? You know how to fool the senses of a faunus so they can't find you via scent using perfumes and shampoos, but you didn't put together a heightened sense of hearing and an inability to be snuck up on?"

Ruby's mouth opened and closed for a couple of seconds like that of a fish feeding, "Well when you put it that way I sound like an idiot."

Blake raised an eyebrow at her.

"Hey! I don't like what that eyebrow is implying."

Blake smirked at Ruby as she got up off the floor. Ruby glanced up from where she was brushing her pants off, and caught Blake's smirk. "I did it. I finally made you smile!" Ruby raised her hands in triumph.

Blake shook her head, "I assume you didn't initially come over here to attempt to scare me?"

"Nope," she said, making sure to put extra pop on the p, "I actually came over here to invite you to come out with me on a job, and afterwards I figured we could hang out for a bit."

"A job?" Blake asked, her face hesitant, "Don't you work for Junior? I didn't get out of the White Fang, just to get myself pulled back into that kind of lifestyle."

"'That kind of lifestyle?' Oh! No, this isn't anything illegal, or anything like that. It's actually just an escort job, I promise."

"An escort job?"

"I guess that didn't come out properly. I'm going to go pick up one of my usual clients, a Mr. Montague. He's an old man. He has me walk around Vale with him on the twenty first of every month. He's a nice guy, and quite amusing. Especially when he decides that he's going to hit on every other woman, he sees. And I mean 'every other woman' literally. You should see the look on some of the women's faces when he hits on every woman around them but not them. The closest thing to illegal that we'll be doing is when I buy Mr. Montague something sweet. You see his personal caretaker keeps a very strict eye on Mr. Montague's diet, and it's always amusing to hear from him about how the caretaker reacts when the sweet throws everything off. Especially since it's never the same thing twice, so there's not really any connecting factor, and he thinks that all we're doing is walking around, looking at stuff and shopping. One time he tried to tail us but I knew he was there and-"

Blake set her hand on Ruby's shoulder, silencing her, "It's alright, Ruby. You can stop rambling, I'll go."

* * *

The two of them sat down in their respective chairs at a table in _The_ _Lemon Drop Cafe_ ,"Did you see the face on that one woman? She was so confused as to why he was hitting on her two friends but not her. Oh, it was great."

Blake smiled, and nodded. Afterwards the two of them sat in companionable silence as they waited for a waiter to stop and take their orders. When one finally did, with Ruby ordering for both of them since Blake had never been there before, the former White Fang member finally spoke for the first time since they had dropped Mr. Montague back off at his home, "What's his story?"

Ruby shook herself out of her current daydream, "Hmm? Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I was curious. Mr. Montague, what's his story. There must be a reason why he has you pick him up every month on the twenty first and drive him around, so what is it?"

Ruby puffed her cheeks out, and scratched the back of her head. "I...I first picked up Mr. Montague three years ago when I was fifteen. He was actually one of my first customers ever since I had only started driving for Junior a couple of months before and was only doing things that were completely legal at the time-"

Blake glanced around furtively, "Are you sure you should say things like that here in public?" When she spoke it was in a low whisper.

"Things like what?" Ruby didn't bother lowering her voice.

"Things like 'completely legal'. It kind of implies that you were doing illegal things after, or are still doing them."

"Fun fact, so long as you don't act suspiciously, and are acting like nothing out of the ordinary is going on or being discussed, most people will completely tune out or ignore whatever you say or do. It's great information for infiltrating places. In fact, you're probably drawing more attention to us by whispering like that than you would have if you said that you were a child eating mummy just come from a pyramid in the deserts of Vacuo for a vacation. Well, you would have if it weren't for the fact that _Lemon Drop's Cafe_ is owned by Junior and I, and everyone who works here is a member of our organization."

"You keep saying things like 'our organization' and 'owned by Junior and I'. Don't you work _for_ Junior, not with him?"

Ruby chuckled, "No. I work with him, not for him. Junior is the face of everything, I'm the unseen phantom. I gather the info that can't be found in public places like a bar or cafe. I ensure that deals are kept, and promises fulfilled. All the while, I do it without anyone truly knowing who or what exactly I am."

Her faunus companion looked at her suspiciously, "How do you do that?"

The redhead shrugged, "Those who decide not to hold up their ends of a bargain or pose an obstacle to me completing one of my more shady jobs don't survive long enough to blab, and everyone else assumes that I'm merely a regular worker for Junior. During higher profile jobs that could lead to the discovery of my identity I use one of two masks to hide my face and voice, or disguise myself. It boils down to everyone being dead, or ignorant."

"What category do I fit under?"

"Neither?" Ruby smiled sheepishly. "You got out of the White Fang, and I don't imagine that you would go back anytime soon. I'm also hoping that I can trust that you won't rat me out to any law enforcement officials, although even if you were to do that it wouldn't amount to much of anything considering how much pull Junior and I have here in Vale."

"Mm-hm. So what were you saying before I sidetracked you?"

"About…"

"Mr. Montague."

"Oh, yeah. I escorted Mr. Montague around for the first time when I was fifteen. He actually has me do it every month since he's on his own. You see a little bit over four years ago, Mr. Montague and his wife, his son and daughter-in-law, and his grandchildren were all supposed to go to a ski resort - Mr. Montague used to be an avid outdoor sportsman, prior to this even if he is rather old for it. Mr. Montague got sick and couldn't go, but he still insisted that his family go. A freak accident occurred while they were there and they all died. Roughly a year later, he calls Junior's legitimate driving service and asks for someone to accompany him around town. He had gotten tired of being on his own in his house with just his workers, and wanted to see other people. Junior gave me the job since it was so easy, and I've been doing it ever since."

"Is it really alright, for you to be telling me all of this about him?"

Ruby waved off Blake's concerns, "It's fine. None of it isn't anything that you couldn't easily find on the internet. Enough of that though. I actually brought you out of your apartment today, because a friend of mine said that you were probably feeling a little adrift since you broke all ties with the White Fang. Going on that vein, I wanted to ask if you wanted to go on a job with me day after tomorrow. It's nothing illegal. In fact, it's just the opposite. We would be helping out a Hunter that I know carry out an officially sanctioned operation."

Blake looked a little wary but nonetheless nodded her assent.

The driver jumped up, and clapped. "Great, now we should probably get you back to the apartment for now and-"

"Ruby, calm down. We don't have to head back just yet, not to mention, we have yet to even order our food yet."

The driver sat back down, and grinned bashfully, "Sorry."

* * *

 **Two days later**

The two of them pulled up to the address that Qrow had given Ruby, and got out. The building was...decrepit, to say the least. Windows were broken, cobwebs could be seen on the ceilings of the rooms through the broken windows. One of the doors into the building were hanging, skewed, on one hinge, which was better than the other door which had apparently decided to waltz off and find itself a better home.

Ruby sighed and started muttering under her breath as she closed her door, causing Blake to look at her strangely. "Everything alright, Ruby?"

Ruby's head snapped over, "Hmm? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine. The Hunter we're meeting just chose this building to mess with me."

"Why? Did something happen here?"

"No, Qrow, the guy we're meeting, used to be like a mentor to me. We were doing a stakeout of someone, and he had me make up plans for how we would do the stakeout. We hadn't done stakeouts before so I didn't really have any previous knowledge. He expected me to use everything he had taught me up to that point to make guesses on what the best choices would be to make. I chose a building that had been abandoned for a few years, like this one, to watch from, and built my entire plans around the building. After I finished my plans, I took them to Qrow. He looked them over for a few minutes, and then threw them in the trash can and told me to start over. He didn't tell me what was wrong or anything. So like five iterations, a hundred-pages of typing, and four weeks later, I finally change the building to a hotel that was next to it...and he approved it. He didn't tell me until later that the reason he wouldn't let us use the building was because people tend to notice when people start doing things in buildings that have been empty for a while, and might get curious and start snooping which could have blown the whole thing."

"Who were you staking out?"

"Junior."

Blake remained silent for a few moments before finally caving in, and asking, when it became obvious that Ruby wasn't going to extrapolate any further, "Why?"

"Because I needed blackmail material against him since he was trying to cut me off from cookies and strawberries. He claimed that they were, and I quote, 'Not a suitable combination of food items to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and if you can't restrain yourself then you can't have any.'"

"How old were you at this time?"

"Fourteen." Ruby looked over her shoulder and gave Blake a wide grin. She looked forward again, and pointed to a step near the top of the set of stairs they were on, "Skip that step, you'll fall through it if you step on it." The two of them reached the top of the stairs they were on and turned down the hallway. When they got to the door at the very end, right side of the hall, The driver pushed the door open and stepped in. "Very funny, Qrow. What would you have done, if I hadn't caught that, fell through it and broke my leg?"

"If you hadn't caught that, then you would be so rusty that I wouldn't want your assistance." Ruby caught the rising and lowering of Qrow's shoulders in a shrug before he started turning towards away from the table he was standing beside. Qrow finished turning around just as Blake came to a stop beside Ruby, and he instantly froze. When he spoke next, it was with a deathly cold tone. "Ruby. Who might this be?"

Ruby grinned, and waved her hand at her faunus guest in a manner reminiscent of a show girl on a gameshow, "This, dearest Qrow, is Blake. She'll be accompanying us on our mission."

Qrow fixed her with a glare, that had it been anyone other than the redhead would have paralyzed them with fear, "Will she?" His face abruptly softened, and a smile slowly grew on his face.

The driver eyed him warily, "What's the smile for?"

"Well, I just remembered a small tidbit of information. I may have forgotten to mention something myself. Which means I can't really be upset with you for not mentioning that - Blake was it? - will be joining us."

"What have you done?"

* * *

Ruby finished strapping on the rest of her free-fall gear, grumbling under her breath the entire time. Afterwards she strode over to the open cargo bay doors of the cargo airship, and came to a stop between Blake and Qrow. She glanced at Qrow, "You're an evil, evil man. You know that, right?"

"Says the woman who is making me pay her $10 million for her assistance in a mission that could potentially save millions of lives, and protects criminals for a living?"

"We each have our prices, right? Yours is $0, mine is 10 million. What difference is there?" She shrugged, "And I have no idea what you're talking about in reference to the second part of your question."

"Sure you don't."

The silence that followed was only broken by the sound of the wind buffeting the inside of the cargo bay...meaning it wasn't silent at all. Ruby meanwhile ruminated on what she was about to have to do.

HALO jumps. First developed and tested roughly a hundred years ago as a means to covertly insert Hunters into locations with a heavy Grimm population, and then used a great deal during the Faunus Rights Movement just over fifty years ago as a way of covertly getting troops and supplies behind enemy lines, High Altitude-Low Opening jumps involved a person, a group of people, and/or supplies and equipment being flown to an altitude of anywhere from 14,000ft to 35,000ft usually with the record being set at somewhere around 60,000ft for a jump. The jumpers would then fall to a height of roughly 1000-2000ft at which point they would deploy their parachutes. There was a similar procedure known as HAHO, or High Altitude-High Opening jump, which involved jumpers opening their chutes only seconds after jumping, that was almost always only used with personnel and not supplies or equipment.

Ruby didn't have a problem with the jumps, in fact she got a thrill out of the free fall prior to opening a chute. No, her problems lay with just how much could go wrong with these types of jumps. Even doing something as simple as taking a single breath of atmospheric air while switching from the 100% oxygen pre-breathing air to the 100% oxygen breathing apparatus that was part of the free fall gear could lead to a large enough nitrogen buildup in the bloodstream that a jumper could die from what was commonly known as 'the bends'. There was always the possibility that something could go wrong with the chutes, there was the danger of hypoxia or not having enough oxygen in certain parts of your body that could knock you unconscious and therefore unable to activate your chute. There was the possibility of frostbite at such high altitudes. The 70+ lb. rucksacks of gear could come loose turning you into a giant human bolo. People could wind up miles from where they should have landed, as well as a whole host of other dangers, not the least of which is the ever present danger of being picked off by a Nevermore while parachuting. Suffice it to say that this wasn't one of Ruby's favorite things to do.

The plan was for the redhead to jump first to serve as point, followed by Blake, and then Qrow so that Qrow would be able to try and save her if something went wrong since the faunus admitted she had done jumps like this before but not very many of them and she had never been formally trained - this admittance may have earned Ruby a rather questioning and curious glance from Qrow.

The radios on their free-fall gear crackled, _"Alpha team-"_

Ruby scoffed mentally, _We're the only team. What are you talking about?_

" _-oint. I repeat we are above the drop point."_

As the driver ran towards the edge of the ramp and jumped off, she could just make out Qrow yelling " _Go, go, go."_ and waving them off. Ruby started to fall and just reveled in the wind blowing on and past her face. It was moments like these when she felt truly alive. Moments when there was nothing but to worry about but enjoying the sensation of the wind on her face...and the quickly approaching ground. "Where's our drop point, Qrow? I can see the target from here, but are we dropping directly into the compound or dropping down outside and sneaking in?"

" _You should see a clearing roughly a mile out from the compound that's where you should aim for."_

Ruby searched the ground rapidly growing larger as she came closer to it for the clearing, and aimed for it when she spotted it - it was a rather large clearing, in fact Ruby would have been more inclined to call it a meadow. As she continued falling, her mind drifted back to the topic of HALO jumps. The first question usually asked when explaining HALO jumps to people without training in auras was "If Hunters and the like can use their auras, why do they need parachutes?" which, in Ruby's opinion, was a stupid question. While aura did a lot to protect the person with it, it had limits. The fact that an aura could be depleted in a fight was clear evidence of this, and with the massive amount of kinetic energy built up while free falling, the only difference between an aura user and someone else while falling from a height of 30,000 ft. was the fact that the average aura user might be able to survive the fall with a sufficiently high amount of aura, but their aura would be so depleted that they more often than not would be incapacitated for the rest of the mission, and that was without mentioning the likelihood of them having several broken bones from such an impact even with aura. Without enough aura, the only difference was just how large the blood splatter was.

Ruby's eyes flicked towards her altimeter and realized that she was only 1500 ft. from the ground. "Deploying chute." Ruby said into her earpiece as she did so. As soon as the parachute was fully deployed, she cheered into her earpiece...at least she did until she heard Qrow's next statement.

" _My main chute's not working."_

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hey guys. You're probably wondering where I've been for...what's it been...oh dear god, I literally just checked it. It's been almost two and a half fucking months. I'm sorry guys. Things have been...not the greatest recently.**

 **Um, school started back up a few days after I uploaded the last chapter which eats up a large chunk of my time. My laptop screen broke meaning I'm chained to my TV in the living room when it comes to typing, meaning I can't write just before I go to sleep like I used to (I used to write in bed until I literally fell asleep without realizing it). My depression came back in full force (don't worry nothing drastic happened/will happen, as soon as I realized I was suffering from severe depression about a year or so ago, I've been getting help and I would never do anything to harm myself because I view that as a coward's way out that solves nothing and only hurts those you care about) which demolished my motivation to write and gave me serious writer's block. I started volunteering at the local ASPCA which took up even more of my free time.**

 **The thing that really got to me to force myself back to writing though was - along with the massive amount of flooding that's been going on down here in south carolina which has given me some much needed free time - I was going through some of Markiplier's old videos and found one in which he realized just how much he'd changed from when he was a smaller youtuber, and he promised to try to change things so they were closer to how he used to be (if you don't know Markiplier is a quickly growing Youtuber who's going through a tough time, he just recently had a friend commit suicide, check out his videos, and send him some support from me, he's a great guy who deserves it, and I honestly think we need more people like him in the world).**

 **It made me realize that when I first decided to write this story I vowed to myself to be one of the authors who didn't disappear off the face of the earth. I decided to be an author that updated at least once a week, and appreciates the people who read my stories. I promised** _ **you guys**_ **that I would update once a week...and I haven't held up my end of the bargain, and while I know that there's no real excuse for that, all I can do is ask for your forgiveness, and hope you give it. When I posted the first chapter of this story, I entered into a pact with you guys that I would write it so long as it went on for or for as long as you were reading it for, so this is me starting over I guess. From here on out, I'm going to publish at least one chapter a week no matter what it takes to do so.**

 **So thanks to those who favorited and followed even in my time of absence, and thanks to Whendeathdies, Anime Buddha, and the guest who reviewed for reviewing. Anime Buddha, normally I would respond via email to a review but it's been so long that I feel at this point it would just be awkward/weird. If you have a question/catch a mistake/want to discuss the story some, feel free to review or send me a PM. From here on out I'll make sure to answer each and everyone of them as I recieve them. Until next chapter guys.**

 **P.S. As a warning next chapter will be an interlude of sorts from the story and will contain backstory/explanation of some stuff brought up in this chapter/that kind of thing. For those who've read Wildbow's** _ **Worm**_ **, yes, I am stealing the idea for this from him. For those who haven't read it, why are you reading this trash, you should be reading that masterpiece of storytelling.**


	6. Interlude 1

**Interlude 1**

Ruby's entire world consisted solely of the excruciating pain that wracked her entire body, intensifying anytime she so much as twitched a single muscle, and the darkness provided by the inside of her eyelids. The young girl shifted her weight to her slightly less injured right side, an action she quickly came to regret as she started rolling down the stairs she was laying on. Her body hit the sidewalk, and with the ensuing pain she was soon embraced by a new kind of darkness, that of unconsciousness.

 _Ruby smiled as she bit into the rare treat of a freshly baked, strawberry-filled pastry. Her eyes closing in ecstasy as the filling squirted into her mouth. The resulting pleasure for the eight year old orphan was enough to make her stop in her tracks for a moment and just enjoy the bite._

 _"RUBY! RUBY! Guess what!"_

The redheaded child was pulled from the sweet, numb oblivion of unconsciousness by the scuffing of shoes on the sidewalk by her head as someone stepped over her, and that someone muttering to themselves.

"It's not my problem. Just keep walking, Junior, just keep walking."

Ruby gasped in pain, unable to muster the energy to do anything louder.

The voice and footsteps on the stairs stopped. Then they came back only to stop beside her. The last thing she remembered before once again passing out was the agonizing pain of someone jostling her wounds as they picked her up.

 _As Ruby registered the sound of feet beating against the sidewalk, and the familiar voice calling out her name, she stopped in her tracks once again. This time, though, she stopped not out of pleasure but fear. The kind of fear that makes one shake as if they're freezing. Ruby knew how this was going to look. Even if that impression was wrong she knew how he would react. How everyone would react._

 _The pounding of running feet came to a stop right behind her, "Ruby, guess what I found!"_

 _She just stood there frozen in panic, the pastry in one hand, half raised to her mouth in order to take another bite, as they stepped up beside her into her peripheral vision._

" _Ruby? Are you alright? I managed to fin…" The nine-year old faunus boy trailed off as he saw the pastry in Ruby's hand. His expression of exaltation quickly turning to one of anger. "He was right._ I _was so_ stupid." _The boy, or Rory as Ruby knew him, grabbed her by the arm and started dragging her down the street._

 _As the larger boy's hand wrapped around her bicep, the younger girl finally seemed to snap out of her fear-induced haze. She started leaning back, and fighting to get free from her friend's grip. Anything to try and gain the time needed to explain that things weren't as they seemed._

As soon as Ruby's eyes opened she started to frantically look around herself and push herself up onto her elbows. As least she did until the pain caused her to fall back onto her back which only seemed to worsen the pain coursing through her body in the same manner that blood does. She gave a small cry of pain as she fell back, and reflexively closed her eyes in an instinctive attempt to tune out the pain.

"Hey, calm down. You're pretty badly beat up." The voice that uttered this was accompanied by a hand gently pressing down on the young girl's shoulder.

It was at this point that Ruby calmed down enough to realize that she was lying in what felt to her like what a cloud was supposed to feel like. She slowly opened her eyes to see a man sitting in a plastic armchair beside the bed she was lying in.

He had short black hair, thick black eyebrows, and bloodshot eyes so dark they were almost black.

Ruby looked around the rest of the room she was in expecting to see hospital equipment, the place that would not only have saved her life but might as well have ended it as well. Much to her surprise though the room looked much like what she had always imagined a person's bedroom should have looked.

The young girl furrowed her eyebrows at the man in confusion until she noticed part of his hair was sticking up oddly. It wouldn't be until several years later when Ruby had learned how to read people and situations that she would look back on this memory and realize that the mussed up hair and bloodshot eyes meant that he had stayed up late at her bedside until he passed out from exhaustion. Ruby giggled, and then winced as doing so moved her body and momentarily worsened her pain, "Ow."

The man stepped back from the bed, keeping his hand held out towards Ruby, "Just stay there for a moment. I'm going to go get the doctor." He walked to the door, and stepped out.

Ruby closed her eyes, but not out of comfort, relief, or any other positive emotion. It wasn't pain or fear that caused her to close her eyes either. Instead it was defeat and apathetic acceptance. Defeat because she had lost the closest thing she had to a family and would likely be put back into the foster program, and apathetic acceptance because she knew that there was nothing she could do to stop what was about to happen.

 _"Rory, it's not what it looks like! I promise, just give me a chance to explain!" By this point Ruby had dropped her pastry - which Rory had made sure to pick up with his free hand - and was prying on the hand he had on her arm in an attempt to get free._

 _The dog faunus turned towards her, his face twisted in rage, "Why?! So you can lie to me and try to tell me that I was imagining this?" He brandished the, now dirty, pastry in Ruby's face, "So you can twist things to your benefit and get away unpunished? No! Olive was right, humans can't be trusted. You're all liars, only looking out for yourselves. I never should have introduced you to the group. We never should have let you in."_

 _Hearing this from her first and only true friend brought tears to her eyes and made her lose all will to fight._

 _They turned the corner to see a group of children ranging from six to fourteen standing on and around a set of stairs leading up that lead up to an apartment building._

Ruby squinted her eyes at the page as if that would help her decipher the meaning of the letters splayed across the page of the book she was being forced to read, "'The better to hear you with my dear,'" She winced and looked up at Junior, "Was that right?"

Junior smiled and nodded, "Yes. That was right."

It had been almost a year since that fateful day when Junior had found her at the bottom of the stairs to his apartment building. When Junior had come across her, he instantly knew that she was a street urchin from the inch thick layer of dirt covering her skin to the stains, dirt, and tears in the clothes she was wearing. After getting her up to his apartment and placed on the bed in the spare bedroom, he called an old friend of his that had managed to get off the streets and become a doctor and convinced her to come to over and take a look at her.

His friend had found several fractured and broken bones, she had a concussion, and suffered from severe internal bleeding in several organs of her body including her stomach, both kidneys, and her liver, as well as bruising across the entire surface of her body. Had Junior come upon her even a few minutes later or the doctor taken a few minutes longer to get there she wouldn't have made it. In fact the only thing that did save her was her aura unlocking of it's own accord and acting to repair as much of the damage as it could. While it wasn't enough to stop the bleeding, it did slow it long enough for the doctor to get there and use her own aura to reinforce Ruby's aura and use her Semblance to heal the small red-headed girl, alongside the normal medical treatments used for such wounds.

Junior's friend Doctor Marvell, or Wendy as Ruby came to know her, stayed in Junior's room for almost a month in order to continue treating Ruby, while Junior slept on the couch. Ruby quickly became close to the two of them, and after the month was up and she no longer needed treatment from Wendy, Junior, who had become rather fond of the small redheaded girl, offered to take Ruby in so long as Wendy didn't say anything to anybody. The blue-haired doctor, being as kind-hearted as she was, was quick to agree.

Things had gone surprisingly well, Junior often had to leave for work, and leave Ruby at his apartment but that didn't bother the small redhead any. In fact she enjoyed having time to herself, it gave her time to think about how things were changing for her.

Then a month and a half ago, the two of them decided to bake some brownies. It was a learning experience for the both of them. Junior, who had told Ruby to read him the recipe while he put it all together, found out that Ruby couldn't read. Ruby, who had been too embarrassed to admit her inability to read before they started, learned that Junior couldn't bake...like at all - Junior, even nine years later, would continue to claim that it was Ruby's fault for telling him the wrong ingredients and that he could bake just fine, interestingly enough though Junior had never tried baking again after that.

After learning of Ruby's inability to read, Junior quickly took it upon himself to teach her at least the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics. Much to the surprise of Ruby - Junior had already noticed just how intelligent Ruby was, in fact he was convinced that if she wasn't genius level she was darn well close to it - she took each of these three things rather quickly. A month later, and she knew how to write the entire alphabet; add, subtract, multiply, and divide; had a rapidly growing vocabulary of words that she knew how to pronounce properly, and for the ones that she didn't know how to pronounce she knew how to figure out on her own how to pronounce them. Despite Junior's best attempts though, Ruby was still insecure about what she knew and constantly convinced that she was getting it wrong.

Ruby finished the new book that Junior had bought her without any messups, and when she did Junior turned around in his chair and grabbed a Wupperware container of chocolate chip cookies off of the counter. He placed them in front of the small girl. "These are for you," He said gesturing towards the cookies with the hand that had held them.

The nine-year old eyed the cookies warily, "You bought those...right?"

Junior sighed and threw his hands up in the air, "Yes, I bought them. You don't have to worry about me making them."

"Thank you," Ruby grabbed the small container of cookies off the table and reached in to grab one until Junior wagged his finger at her. "What?"

"It's almost dinnertime that's what. No cookies until after you eat."

"Aww! Come on Junior. I can't even have one?"

"Nope."

"Whyyyy?" Ruby whined making sure to drag out the y sound.

Junior smiled at her, "Because you asked if those were store bought, that's why."

"Junior!"

 _As they drew closer to the group, Ruby renewed her struggling to escape from Rory's grasp. "Rory, please don't. Just let me explain! You guys are-"_

 _"We're the people who took you in. The people who helped feed you, kept you warm in the cold winter nights, the people who treated you like a family. And you repay us by keeping food to yourself! You don't get a chance to explain." Rory spat in her face. "I should have left you to starve in that alley."_

 _They weren't noticed by the group around the steps until they were almost upon them. A small mouse faunus girl, that Ruby knew was named Didi, was the first to notice them. "Hey Rory...is everything alright?"_

 _"No, it's not." Rory threw his captive into the center of the group of kids. "Olive was right. Humans are nothing but lying trash. Even Ruby."_

Ruby was bored. Keyword of the sentence? Was. Ruby had been with Junior for almost nineteen months now, and in that time she still hadn't learned what it was that Junior did for a living.

About four months after Junior started teaching her, he had taught her everything he knew. Since then he had signed her been providing her with textbooks of anything that she was interested in, which happened to be anything that she could get her hands on. Curious about how she would do, Ruby took a practice college entrance exam she found online. She scored higher than 93% of people who had taken the test, at least according to the site she found it on.

Two days ago, Ruby finished the book she had been reading on advanced weapon design. She had mentioned to Junior that she finished it but he had yet to get her a new one which led to the current situation.

Ruby was currently sneaking her way through an old building. With nothing else to do, Ruby had decided to follow Junior and see what he did for a living. Most nine year olds - nine and half if you asked Ruby - didn't know how to hotwire a car or drive it even if they did...Ruby wasn't most nine year olds. The knowledge of how to hotwire came from a book on automotive engineering that Ruby had read a few weeks ago. The knowledge of how to drive? Well, that may or may not have come from a racing game that Junior had gotten her as a present two months ago upon Ruby's request. Okay, maybe Ruby had been planning this for a little longer than she would be willing to let on.

"That's all I've managed to gather up so far." Ruby recognized Junior's voice. The voice that followed...not so much.

"Very good. Very, very good. I mean you are just spectacular, Junior." The sound of heels could be heard rapping against the stone floor of the building.

Ruby stuck her head around the corner of the doorway so she could see inside the room, only to see someone looking just above where her head was. Ruby remained motionless for a moment praying that he wouldn't notice her. It wasn't until the man turned back towards Junior that Ruby realized that she was far enough in the darkness that he couldn't see her.

With the realization that she was safe from his sight, Ruby's pulse returned to normal and she took the time to actually look at the stranger. Standing at roughly 6' 8" he was the walking epitome of a gang leader, with a leather jacket (with spikes of varying length running up and down the arms and shoulders), and leather pants, heeled boots of some kind, fingerless gloves, and a brown shirt with some band logo on it, black hair, and long mutton chops. The entire thing seemed like some costume one would wear to a halloween party, and clashed horribly with the aura of power he exuded. If a comparison had to be made, the clash of outfit with demeanor was the same as that of a dog wearing a tutu as it tried to kill you. On most dogs, the tutu would look cute but on a 200+ lb. dog that was perched on your chest trying to rip your throat out it would not only look wrong but completely ridiculous.

"Now Junior, you have been a tremendous help with all of this. I also greatly appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to personally come and meet with me and on your own no less...but it was kind of foolish as well." The man pulled appeared to wipe something from his pant leg but when his hand came up and pointed at Junior, Ruby could see from the sunlight coming in through the window of the room him and Junior were in, and thanks to the several books she'd read on weapon design, that he was holding what appeared to be a standard .45 calibre handgun. Of course, there was no way for her to be positive in a world where weapons could shift from one form to another at a whimsy, and could shoot fire, ice, earth, lightning, or any other mixture they so desired with a single flick of a switch, but that's Remnant for you.

They say that adrenaline can do wonderful things from making a mother be able to lift a car, to giving someone the focus and strength needed to fight off someone much larger than them in a fight to the death. For Ruby, it was the thing that made her singular goal in that moment to be to somehow cross the roughly thirty foot distance from where she was to the gunman before he could pull the trigger and kill the only family that Ruby had. For Ruby, it was the thing she needed to tap into her Semblance.

 _Didi scrunched her face up in confusion, "What are you talking about, Rory?"_

 _"I'm talking about this." He waved the now dirty and crumbling pastry in the air. He pointed at Ruby with his free hand while the one with the pastry stayed held up in the air, "She got this and decided to eat it without sharing it like she agreed to do when she joined us."_

 _He sneered down at Ruby, "Remember trash? The promise you made? The one where all of the food you got with the group? How often have you done this? Huh? You sicken me!"_

 _Ruby tried to push herself up from the ground, "It's not like that! Please just let me - Aagh!" Ruby clutched her ribs where Rory had kicked her._

 _"SHUT UP! JUST_ SHUT UP _! Stop it with the lies, and just shut up! You won't fool us anymore!"_

 _By this point the crowd's shock and surprise was quickly turning to fury and outrage._

 _Rory turned to a large Bulldog faunus standing closest to where Ruby lay who looked particularly outraged, "Pick her up."_

Junior walked into the room ahead of Ruby. "Ruby, this is Qrow. Qrow, this is Ruby."

It had been almost three months since Ruby had unlocked her Semblance, and in that time it had been a fierce struggle between her and Junior. Junior didn't want Ruby to have any part in his business, the last thing he wanted was to put her in a situation that could potentially put her in a worse condition than she had been when he found her, and so had refused every request Ruby had made of him to get someone to train her in how to use her Semblance. Ruby wanted to learn how to use her Semblance, and had vehemently denied any accusation that she wanted to learn how to use it so that she could be of use to Junior. And no, the fact that the first thing she had asked upon waking up from aura exhaustion two days after unlocking her Semblance, was how could Ruby help Junior, did not in any way signify that she wanted to help him. When Junior came back to find Ruby reading a book on how to train one's Semblance, he quickly capitulated figuring that if she was so determined to learn how to use her Semblance that she was going to do it whether or not he go someone to teach her it would be best to just get someone so she could learn without killing herself. He still wasn't quite sure where she had managed to get that book about Semblances from or where it had gone afterwards but that was neither here nor there.

"He's agreed to help train you in how to use your Semblance."

Ruby eyed the man sitting across the table from her warily, "And he's qualified to do so why?"

Junior rolled his eyes, "Because he's a Hunter."

Ruby sat up straighter and smiled brightly at Qrow. She stuck her hand out over the table for Qrow to shake, "Hi, my name's Ruby. When do you want to start?"

Junior widened his eyes, "Really Red that's it? I say he's a Hunter and suddenly you're all buddy-buddy with him."

Qrow meanwhile grinned back at Ruby and shook her hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ruby."

Ruby put her hand back down on her lap and nodded at back at her big brother figure. "If you say he's a Hunter then he must be a Hunter. You have no reason to lie to me about that. By the way, if you ever call me Red again I will put cayenne pepper on your pillow, and then put the pillowcase back over it."

 _"Rory, please. Things aren't the way you think they are."_

 _The first punch was the worst for Ruby, for two reasons. It wasn't the hardest blow she would come to receive on this occasion, in fact it was among the weakest of the blows she would have to endure that night. No, this punch was the worst because 1) it was for Ruby the beginning of the end of the best thing she had as yet had up this point family-wise, 2) it hit just the right spot that it demolished the pastries she had stashed in that side pocket of her jacket. Together with the pastries that she had in the other side pocket of her jacket and the one she had been eating, the pastries in that pocket had been enough to give everyone in the group one of them._

 _Ruby's eyes widened in despair. Rory's eyes widened in mock surprise. Years later when she looked back on this memory, Ruby would wonder how she hadn't noticed how fake that surprise was at the time._

 _Rory reached into her pocket, and drew out the smashed remains of one of the pastries, dangling it by the parchment paper that had at one point in time been wrapped around it. He turned to show the crowd of faunus children the decimated pastry. He turned back to Ruby and held it up before her, "Not only did you not share but you had some hidden inside your coat?" He shook his head, "To think I called you my friend. In reality, you're just a leech taking what you want and giving nothing in return."_

Ruby ran into the kitchen, and skidded to a stop beside Junior. "Junior, Junior! Guess what!"

Junior tapped his wooden spoon against his chin getting spaghetti sauce all over the place, "Hmm, chickenbutt?"

"Huh?" Ruby's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

Junior waved his spoon dismissively, "Nothing. What?"

"Qrow said that he's so impressed with how quickly I've been learning how to control my Semblance, that he wants to train me in other things as well."

Junior smiled, and congratulated Ruby. The two talked about their respective days for a little bit, and then Ruby started to walk away. With her back to Junior she completely missed the look of worry that crossed his face as he watched her depart.

 _There's this amazing thing that happens in the human brain when we're one among a group of people. We lose our individuality, our morals, our ethics, and instead become merely a part of a greater whole, doing what the majority does or believes is right to do. This is what's known as the Conformity Theory. In some instances this can be used to great effect with people coming together for things like disaster relief, or volunteer projects to improve the community, or come together to overcome a threat to the community or its neighbors. In most instances though, the Conformity Theory is a horrible thing that we as should be ashamed of. It's because of the phenomena spoken of in the Conformity Theory that someone in the street can call out for help and everyone just walk past them telling themselves 'it's not my problem.', or 'somebody else will help them. Surely someone else will help them. I don't need to do it.', or a child in school, or even an adult in the adult world whether it's college, work, or just among "friends" can be bullied in front of us and we just walk by. And as the event escalates, it's that very phenomena that enables people who on their own aren't bad people to not only stand by and watch but join in on what is going on._

 _For Ruby, it was the phenomena spoken of in the Conformity Theory that allowed children in the crowd such as Didi, who would never harm an animal even if it was stealing the only piece of food for the week, to stand by and not do anything. For the bulldog faunus holding Ruby, it was that phenomena that allowed them to hold Ruby up as Rory beat on her. It was that phenomena that compelled the first person other than Rory to punch Ruby. It was that phenomena that lead to Ruby being pushed around the group, people throwing punches, headbutting her, scratching her, doing whatever was easiest as she got within range of them. It was that phenomena that when Ruby fell to the ground unable to hold herself up from the pain that rather than pick her up, the children just threw kicks into the mixture of abuse they doled out._

 _And throughout it all, all Ruby could see was a fourteen year old girl with dark green hair perched on the stone walls that made up the sides of the apartment stairs. Back pressed against the wall, just watching the entire thing with a smile on her face, and the occasional popping of a bubblegum bubble as it stretched too much._

"Remember, we're going to fire the flare into the nest as soon as your feet touch the ground. From there you only have three possible endings to this mission. One, you clear out the entire nest. Two, you abort it by firing the flare into the sky at which point we will come in pick you up, at which point we will go over everything that I judge you to have messed up on, or even made the smallest of mistakes on. And we will go over them again and again until you never make them again. Three, you get yourself killed. Got it?"

Ruby smiled at her mentor, "Qrow, you sounded annoyed when telling me my second option."

"Maybe it's because you've been pushing me to teach you at such a fast pace, that I'm currently sending a fourteen year old on a mission that only a senior team of hunters-in-training at Beacon would be sent on."

The redhead's grin widened even more, if that was even physically possible, and waved before jumping feet first out of the bullhead to the ground a hundred feet below. Ruby's cloak fluttered around her as her feet touched the ground. Her knees bent to absorb the impact of the fall, and when she came up she held just a combat knife in a reverse grip in her left hand.

She watched as the flare connected with the copse of trees that made up the nest of the Grimm she was there to kill. As the trees burst into flame, a steady stream of Grimm started to flow out of the trees. The first to notice her was an Ursa, and even then it was on ten yards away when if finally did so. From there the knowledge of her presence among the Grimm was like a plague. For a moment everything was silent except for the crackle of the flames in the trees. Then it and everything else exploded into movement.

The Ursa who had first noticed her was also the first to move. It charged towards her, and when it had crossed half the distance to her, Ruby followed suit. Charging towards it, Ruby waited until it was only five feet away before dodging to her right. Ducking under the Ursa's swipe, Ruby came up and plunged the combat knife up to it's hilt what was equivalent to a carotid artery in an Ursa. Continuing with her forward motion, Ruby ripped the knife out of the Ursa and ran towards the next. Noticing that she was heading directly towards it, the second Ursa reared up on its hind legs ready to engage in combat with Ruby. Much to its surprise though rather than stopping, Ruby dropped to her knees and leaned back far enough to slide between the legs of the Ursa. As she came out on the other side, she popped back up to her feet, spun around and slid the knife between two of its vertebrae. Using its body as a ladder, she then ran up the Ursa, perched both feet upon its shoulders and launched off of its paralyzed body into a backflip that carried her over the head of an onrushing beowulf and landed her a sitting position on its shoulders. Grabbing its lower jaw in one hand and the back of its head in the other, she snapped its still unsuspecting neck. As soon as her feet touched the ground Ruby stood up, and turned back to face the oncoming horde. This time though she held not a combat knife but her "sweetheart", Crescent Rose in its sniper form. She fired Crescent Rose six times, each shot either killing or incapacitating a Grimm. Ejecting the still relatively full magazine, she slapped a new coss marked clip in and unfolded Crescent Rose into its scythe form.

As the redheaded girl just stood there, a beowolf, thinking itself lucky, reached her and swung at her. The last conscious thought the beowolf had before it's torso was cleaved in half was used to wonder where in the world it's target had gone. From there, Ruby was a constant whirlwind of motion. Using rounds from her cross marked clip to not only shot beowolves but to boost the great speeds she was already managing to achieve with just her Semblance.

Twenty minutes later, she was jumping back into the bulkhead, grinning at Qrow. This time as she entered the bullhead, the red that colored her ever-present cloak, given to her as a gift from Qrow, wasn't just dye, "You were saying?"

 _The group of children slowly started dispersing into pairs, muttering to each other. They would meet back up later that evening, no destination actually having been decided on, just each confident in their abilities to find the others when the time was right._

 _Ruby, of course, was unaware of any of this occurring. She was only able to focus on the immense pain wracking her body. After what felt like hours, even if it had been just a few seconds, of laying there after the beating finally ended, Ruby felt someone pick her head up and rest it in their lap. Ruby slowly cracked her eyes open, to find herself looking up into the tear-stricken face of Didi._

 _The mouse faunus began to dab at Ruby's face with the tail of her shirt in an attempt to clean her off some, "I'm so sorry, Ruby. I...I wish I had done something. I wish I was strong enough to have done something."_

 _As she felt Didi dabbing at her face with her shirt, memories started to come back to her of her brief time in the group of faunus children. Memories of Didi smiling at her even from the first time, the girl had seen her. Of Didi giving Ruby some of her food when the older girl had seen the redheaded girl staring hungrily at other's food after scarfing down her own food. Of Didi watching out for Ruby on cold winter nights, and telling the younger girl a joke when she was feeling down. And Ruby realized that if anyone among the group had been her friend, it was Didi, not Rory._

 _Ruby jerked her head off of Didi's lap and tried to tell her to leave, but all that came out was muffled gibberish._

 _Didi grabbed Ruby's head once again, and returned it to her lap, "Don't do that. I'm trying to clean you up."_

 _Once again, Ruby jerked her head off of Didi's lap, this time though the words that accompanied her action were marginally intelligible, "Go...way."_

 _Didi tried to grab Ruby's head a third time, tears welling up in her eyes. "Ruby, I'm just trying to help."_

 _And once again, Ruby jerked her head off, "Go...way. Don't...eed...elp."_

 _Didi nodded once before standing up and staggering off, her sobbing piercing even through the haze that covered Ruby's senses._

 _As Ruby lay there watching Didi leave, all she could think was_ You shouldn't have to suffer for what I did. _She noticed the silhouette of someone come to a stop beside her before crouching down._

"Ruby, you could be the youngest Huntress to ever attend Beacon!"

Ruby threw her arms out wide, "I don't want to do that, Qrow! I don't want to be a Huntress!"

"So what do you want to be? Huh? Do you want to join Junior's little information empire? You didn't realize that I knew about that, did you? You didn't know how Junior convinced me to train you initially, did you?"

"I don't know what I want to be. What I do know though is that I don't want to spend my entire life defending the nameless masses who were all too willing to leave me to rot in the streets against an enemy that we can never truly win against. What use could one more Huntress really make, Qrow? We've been fighting this fight for as long as anyone can remember. For as long as the records we have can remember. When does it end?"

"It might be small, but you'd still be making a difference. Just one person can make a world of difference in things, Ruby. You know that! So why are you fighting so hard against this?"

"I don't want to discuss this anymore, alright?"

"No, it isn't, Ruby. I've been training you all these years because I know you have what it takes to become a Huntress but if you flat out refuse to do it then I'm done."

Ruby looked at him, searching his face for any hint of falsehood, "You're lying. You wouldn't do that."

Qrow met her gaze, and held it. "I would Ruby. You have to make a decision right now. If you choose not to be a Huntress, then I'll leave you in peace but I mean that. I will never bother you again. In fact, I will never contact you again."

"My answer is no, Qrow. I don't want to lose you but if that's the only way you're going to drop this matter then so be it."

The Hunter nodded and turned to leave. As he was closing the door behind him, he stuck his head in once more, and nailed Ruby with his gaze. "Empires rise and fall, Ruby. Eventually, Junior's will as well, and when that happens you and him are going to be ground zero. I tried to give you an out, Ruby, remember that when that time comes."

And the door closed, not just on Qrow but on a large era of Ruby's life. Ruby plopped down onto her couch and just stared blankly at her silent TV.

For a little over six years, things had been great. Ruby had started doing minor things to help out Junior, nothing he deemed too dangerous just small errands until this year when she started working for him as a driver in his chauffeur company. Qrow had taught her everything he could in that time, and in that time he had also become the closest thing to a father figure she had. Whereas Junior had become like a big brother to Ruby, Qrow had become, not quite a father, but like that crazy fun Uncle who shows you how to melt a soda can with a blowtorch when you're ten just because he has a blowtorch and you're now that was over.

For a while, Ruby just sat there blankly staring off into space. And then what had actually happened hit her, and her staring off into space became an all consuming rage and she just tore about the apartment, grabbing things that reminded her of Qrow and throwing them into a bin.

A half hour later she was standing in the alley beside her apartment watching her once beloved cloak burn along with everything else in a metal barrel.

 _Olive brushed a lock of hair out of Ruby's face. "Tsk-tsk-tsk. I told you, it wouldn't last and to enjoy it while you could. But you did your part, marrrvelously," Olive's catside making itself evident in her voice as she purred the word marvelously._

 _Olive looked up, and smiled at someone Ruby couldn't see, "And you, Rory, you did spectacularly. How did you come up with that rather brilliant idea with the pastries? It really sealed the deal, and convinced quite a few of them. I think our Master is going to be rather pleased if we can use this to recruit most of them."_

 _Rory crouched down beside Ruby across from Olive, "Actually, you can thank Ruby for the pastry idea. She earned them truly and honestly, by working at a pastry shop. I happened to see her putting them in her pockets and overheard her saying that the others would be so glad to get them. I realized that this not only posed a problem to our plans but could be twisted to our advantage."_

" _Yes...well, good job on that. Now," She sneered down at Ruby, "let's leave this filth here. She likely won't survive much longer."_

 _The two of them stood up, and started to walk away until Olive turned back and looked at Ruby for a moment, "On second thought, I have a better idea. Come and help me pick her up."_

 _Together Rory and Olive managed to lift Ruby and place her on her side on the edge of the top step of the stairs._

" _What did we do this for again?" Rory asked, staring down at Ruby._

 _Olive grinned, "This way she's likely to topple over and fall down the stairs, hurting herself even more."_

" _Ah."_

Ruby stepped into _The Lemon Drop Cafe_ , and stopped a waiter. After talking to her for a second, Ruby continued further into the Cafe, and sat down at her usual table in the back. Watching the people come in and out of the building, Ruby thought back to what Qrow had told her just two years ago, ' _Just one person can make a world of difference…' You're right Junior, and what me and Junior have done to make places like this safe from the fear of crime that permeates the rest of Vale is just one example of that._

"Hi, Ms. Myles. How can I help you today?" A bright and chipper voice asked from Ruby's side drawing her from her thoughts.

Ruby looked over and smiled at her mouse faunus waitress, "Just a glass of water for now, Didi. Just water."


	7. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

As soon as Ruby's feet touched the ground she was ripping off her free fall gear, and knapsack and grabbing the earpiece from the side-pouch of the knapsack within which it resided. "Qrow, status report! Now!"

Qrow, who had refused to respond to previous to previous queries under the pretense of Ruby and Blake needing to focus on their own landings, finally answered a few moments later, " _I'm fine, Ruby. I deployed my reserve chute, and landed…_ "

"But...I know you're leaving something out, Qrow. I can hear it in your voice."

Qrow's low chuckle was just audible through the earpiece, "But I was much too late in deploying the reserve chute and came down hard enough to break my leg even with my aura. Luckily, I knew I took too long and managed to come down close to the extraction point on the other side of the compound. You're going to have to do this mission without me. Meanwhile I'm going to make my way to the extraction point, and I'll see you there."

"See you there, don't get killed on the way." Ruby replied along with a sigh.

Ruby felt someone approaching her from her left as she started getting the bare minimum of things she needed out of her knapsack. Glancing over she saw Blake, and nodded to her bag, "You should have two duffel bags, along with several explosives inside of your bag, get them out and only the things that you feel you absolutely need. Don't bother taking first-aid kits or food. Nothing other than the things you need to fight with."

Blake nodded and started doing as she was told, "What happened with Qrow?"

"The moron managed to deploy his reserve chute but has a broken leg. He's going to head to the extraction point while we carry out our objective. Luckily, Qrow and I always make sure everyone has enough supplies to do the mission on their own if they have to. So we aren't lacking in anything."

Blake took the time to glance over at Ruby with a cocked eyebrow before going back to scavenging her bag of its contents, "We're not going to abort?"

Ruby shook her head, and pursed her lips as she stood up. She had two duffel bags slung over one shoulder, one of which was weighed down by the explosives within it, Crescent Rose on her lower back, and a metal rectangle, oddly reminiscent of her scythe's compact form, on each thigh. She was adorned in a dark blue almost black outfit comprised of a form-fitting shirt made, cargo pants, and steel-toe boots. Around her waist was a utility belt with several pouches containing a total of half a dozen magazines of ammo for her sweetheart. As Blake straightened up, dressed in the same outfit that Ruby had always seen her in - _How many of those outfits does that girl have? She really should see about getting other clothes -_ the driver tossed her a pouch. "No, even with a broken leg, Qrow should be more than capable of navigating his way through these woods. And from what he was saying this mission is way too important to not complete."

Blake opened the pouch, and upended several magazines into her hand. She looked up at Ruby, "And these are…?"

"Dust rounds for your weapon."

Blake's inquisitive expression turned into an inquisitive expression mixed with one of incredulity, "And how do you know what type of ammunition I use?"

Ruby smiled and tapped her temple, "I can identify almost every type of weapon just from a cursory glance at it. I'm a bit of a weapon nut. If you doubt they'll work, feel free to try them in…"

"Gambol Shroud." Blake provided in way of an answer to Ruby's implied question.

"Gambol Shroud. I won't be offended. Most of the time I'm right but if I'm not, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong."

Blake shook her head and placed the magazine pouch on her waist, "No, they're right I was just curious how you knew."

Ruby nodded before turning and making off in the direction of their objective.

* * *

The two had been walking through the woods for what Ruby had to estimate was about eight minutes before Blake broke the silence, "I know it's not my place to ask, but what happened between you and Qrow?"

Ruby smiled, but unlike the many other smiles she'd given the faunus this one didn't even come close to reaching her eyes. If anything this smile conveyed just as much sadness as tears would on a normal person, something that Blake couldn't even imagine coming from the seemingly ever-cheerful redhead walking beside her. "You can tell?"

Blake shrugged, "It wasn't anything either of you said. If it wasn't for the rather palpable tension between the two of you, it probably would have been the lack of things said combined with how well the two of you know each other that would have given it away."

Ruby ducked under a low hanging vine, and took a moment before replying. "Suffice it to say that we each had our own view of how I should help people and it caused a split between us. Qrow kept pushing me to do one thing, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I just wanted to continue on the way I was."

"How do you do it? Does it not bother you?"

This time the glance the redhead gave her black haired companion was questioning, "How do I do what? Does what bother me?"

"You know, the killing...all of it I guess. Providing people you know have bad intentions with the information, and sometimes things they need to carry out such intentions. Does it not weigh on you?"

Ruby stopped, and Blake walked on a few steps before she realized just the driver had no intention of moving on. "You want me to be honest with you?"

Blake nodded.

Ruby puffed out her cheeks, and seemed to be contemplating how to phrase her next words, something which greatly surprised her cat-eared compatriot. "Honestly? It doesn't bother me one bit." Blake opened her mouth to speak, but Ruby held up a hand to forestall any coming questions. "Just let me finish. The people I kill? They're murderers, thugs, thieves. People who make a living hurting others. People who went in with the knowledge that they could lose their lives at any moment. The people who I kill for not holding up their end of the bargains whether it's a loan, a favor, or a trade. They're the people who are on the wrong side of the law. Junior's and my business we have two parts. The side for those on the wrong side of the law, and those on the right side. Just as much as we do things illegally, we do just as much legitimately. The criminals we help? A week later we could be providing the information the cops need to lock up those same people. Hell! I've been employed by the government just as much as I have been by criminals! Junior and I? We've created a place of peace in a city rife with crime even if you don't always see it. The criminals we give information and sometimes supplies to? That we enable to do horrible things? They would have still gone on to do those things had we not helped them. The only difference would have been how they went about doing it. So no, it doesn't bother me. The only thing that I regret is that Junior and I can't expand faster and put more of the city under our protection because that's ultimately our goal to take over enough of the city from the other criminals that we can make ourselves unneeded and drive ourselves out of a job. Then we can turn our attention solely to bettering all of the city of Vale." The redhead shook her head, "Enough of that though, we have something to do."

As the two of them continued on there was silence other than the occasional sound of animals in the night. Something that Blake truly appreciated as it gave her time to think. It remained this way for quite a while until Ruby's voice intruded on her thoughts.

"So Blake, in hindsight I should have asked this of you before we even got onto the plane, but I didn't even think of it since I normally know someone's Semblance long before going on a mission, what's your Semblance?"

"I can create Shadow Clones of myself. They only last for a few seconds, but they last long enough to get me out of a sticky situation."

Ruby nodded as if in deep thought, "Can you use them in accordance with the Dust rounds I provided you?"

"Yeah, I can. I can create copies of myself made of the type of Dust I use. I thought you already knew all of this? Isn't that why you gave me the Dust rounds?"

Ruby shook her head, "No. Actually I gave them to you because I can't stand using Dust, but I figured somebody should be able to just in case they're needed."

The faunus accepted her companion's answer with a nod before retreating back into her thoughts. Thoughts that seemed to always be drawn back to the same topic, her shame over what she had done while in the White Fang, and her shame over what the White Fang had become.

* * *

It was only a short time later that the two young women reached the edge of the woods, and found themselves only a few meters away from the walls that surrounded the complex. Ruby looked up at the tops of the walls, smiled and looked over at Blake just as the raven-haired girl did the same to Ruby.

"So, how are we getting over this? Or do you intend on going through it with the explosives?"

The redhead's smile widened into what could only be described as a grin, "Oh no. We are definitely going over it."

Ruby's glee as Blake waited for a further explanation only widened as she watched the faunus girl's expression turn to sheer terror after hearing the driver's next words, "We're going to be running over it."

Without any further explanation, the redhead activated her Semblance charged towards her companion, scooped her up bridal-style - her Semblance extending to Blake as soon as she lifted her - , and literally _ran_ up the side of the wall, coming to a stop on top of it where she placed her now terrified partner. While Blake slowly came down from the adrenaline spike accompanied by such a horrifying ordeal, Ruby crouched and surveyed her surroundings, her brow furrowing the more she examined them. "Blake, tell me what do you hear?"

Ruby saw Blake's cat ears twitch, just before she replied, "I don't hear anything. Why?"

The redhead frowned in contemplation, before dismissing Blake's query with a wave of her hand. "It's nothing, just a work in progress theory of mine."

Ruby leaped down from the top of the wall, dropping into a crouch to absorb the force of the landing, and her aura taking the rest of it. A second later, Blake landed soundlessly beside her, the only thing letting Ruby know she had done so was the shape of her that Ruby caught in her peripheral vision. Eyeing her surroundings once again, Ruby approached the wall they'd decided to blow through and started placing the shaped Dust explosives on it. _We'll know if my theory is right or not as soon as these go off,_ was the only thing she could think of as she did so.

Nodding to Blake, they took opposite sides of explosives, Blake holding the explosives that would be used to blow the floor of the room on the other side, and Ruby set off the shaped charges blasting a hole in the wall. Blake immediately started to rush into the darkened room but before she was even a few steps in Ruby placed her hand on the faunus' shoulder, stopping her. Blake looked back at Ruby questioningly. Ruby jerked her head in the direction of the door that led to inside of the complex, "Tell me something, Blake. What do you hear?"

Blake paused for a moment, "Nothing, wh…" And then Ruby could see as it clicked into place. Blake looked around the dark room in which they stood, "I don't hear anything."

Ruby nodded, "Exactly. A place like this? This far outside of the borders of Vale, the kingdom? It should be lively. There should have been guards on the walls, everything lit up inside and out. This place is dead. As large as the blueprints show it to be, this place should be humming with the sounds of everything needed to run it, people and machines alike. I don't hear any of that, do you?"

Blake shook her head, "No, I don't. What do you think is going on?"

Ruby shrugged, "I honestly don't know. Among the files that Qrow provided me with of this place was a video from five days ago, and it was bustling. I don't like this one bit."

"How do you want to go about this?"

"If this place is empty? We might as well go ahead, and just go through the hallways. No point in wasting good explosive. Actually on second thought? Go ahead and take your explosives out and leave them here. We don't need to waste our strength carrying this around, and I don't feel like being nice and saving Qrow's employers the expenses." Ruby replied, doing just that as she told Blake to.

A few short minutes later, the two of them were approaching the door, which silently slid open, and then stepping out into the hallway beyond. Initially dark, the hallway quickly brightened as what Ruby could only guess were motion sensors in the them turned the lights on.

They quickly reached the stairs down into the basement, and navigated their way to the server room. Stepping in Ruby saw that for the first time since entering the complex, a room's lights were actually on and on the opposite side of the room from where she was currently standing was another door, this one open, that led to another room which also had its lights on.

Placing her duffel bags on the ground, Ruby gestured to them and told Blake to start putting the drives in the bags while she checked out the other room.

As soon as she entered, Ruby noticed that the room appeared to be devoid of anything other than a table with an index card placed on top of something on the table, and heard a soft thump from behind her, "Hey, Blake. Try not to drop the drives it's not good for them. We don't want to damage them and lose what's on them. Striding over, Ruby picked up the index card, and read the writing which merely said " _A present…"._ Turning it over Ruby found a flash drive, and after ripping it off found some more writing which read, " _... as a show of good faith, and since you proved to be so impressive on both of the previous occassions. Of course, you have to prove yourself once again in order to win this present, but that should be no problem, right Ms. Rose? Just know that if you lose, you won't survive the beating this time._ As soon as she finished reading the note, she activated her Semblance. The increased speed at which she could process information giving her the time needed to pick up and register the slight scrape of a boot on the concrete floor, and dodge out of the way just in time to miss getting hit by a weapon, the wind created by it passing by so closely feathering across her face. The only problem being that she couldn't see the weapon that she had so narrowly avoided being hit with or the person who wielded said weapon.

Doing a back handspring, Ruby used the space that she had hopefully created between her and her opponent to reach down and grab the two weapons resting on her thighs. These were Waning and Waxing Rose, and both unfolded to reveal a smaller version of her sweetheart. The only differences between these gun-scythes and Crescent Rose, other than size was the type of rounds used - .50 calibre handgun rounds rather than the .50 calibre sniper rounds used by their big sister - was the fact that these ones didn't have a gun form only a compact form, and a scythe form. Ruby had designed Waxing and Waning Rose soon after she came to the realization that her eight foot tall scythe wasn't really suitable to fighting in close, confined spaces and so the two smaller versions were born.

Ruby looked around, surveying the room, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. First where was Blake? Her mind drifted back to the small thump she'd heard when entering the room. At first she had thought it was Blake dropping a drive into a duffle bag, but now she realized it must have been someone knocking the faunus out. Second who was attacking her? If she had to guess it was someone with a Semblance that enabled them to be invisible. The manner by which it did so didn't truly matter, only the effect it gave truly did since knowing the logistics of such a Semblance wouldn't really help her defeat them. Second question, why was the base empty? From the way the note was written they must have known Ruby was coming and evacuated everyone. Third question, what was the purpose of leaving the flash drive? Apparently the answer was two-fold, one as a test, and two as a form of present. Which only begged for two more questions to be answered. Why were they testing her and why give her a present? Sadly, Ruby lacked both the answers to those questions and the time to truly ponder them as she managed to once again, at the last moment, dodge a strike from her invisible aggressor.

Ruby managed to continue to dodge her attacker for several minutes, but once she tried to sway backwards in order to evade an attack and only managed to move back enough to turn what would have been a gash into a scratch, she knew she needed to do something differently especially since she knew that she was draining her aura at a rapid pace with as long as she'd been using her Semblance. At that same moment, she saw Blake come through the door into the room in which Ruby was currently fighting for her life, "Blake - ugh - watch out!" As Ruby settled back into a standing position she noticed a lack of the near constant movement that had been surrounding her previously just in time to see Blake use her Semblance in order to evade something. Thinking she was safe for a moment, Ruby dropped her Semblance only to feel something strike her in her upper thigh. The next few minutes were filled with Ruby's thoughts running in circles as she tried in vain to strike out left and right, high and low at her unseen attacker, all the while trying to come up with some plan of action and feeling her aura drop lower and lower with each successful hit she had to endure. Ruby watched Blake once again use her Semblance to evade a blow, her heightened senses helping her to more successfully dodge and attack their assailant, before she finally came up with an idea.

"Blake! Use the Ice Dust!"

From what Ruby could tell Blake was going to question her on why, but realized on her own what Ruby wanted her to do. Ruby felt herself be struck once again, and then watched as Blake dodged another blow, but this time she left behind a statue made of ice which had a rather clear hole in it in the shape of a sword. Already activating her Semblance, putting Waning and Waxing Rose on their places on her thighs, and drawing Crescent Rose, Ruby drove the point of Crescent Rose into the concrete floor and fired at the spot where their attacker should be, and was rewarded with the sound of her bullet striking true accompanied by the sight of their assailant appearing and flying through the air and landing on the ground in a heap. Ruby rushed over leaving Crescent Rose where it was in the concrete, and drawing the two smaller gun-scythes of the three she owned.

She swung down at her opponent with Waxing Rose, only to have it deflected by the sword they were wielding, but she was already swinging in with Waning Rose from her right. Ruby felt Waning Rose bite into the aura of her opponent, quickly followed by the feeling of a boot striking her in the stomach pushing her back. Stumbling back Ruby managed to recover in time to see her opponent stagger to their feet, and then she was upon them once more, not giving them the time to activate their Semblance and escape. Ruby lashed out as quickly as she could with her scythes, shooting off a round both to speed herself up and also to drain portions of her opponent's aura.

Occasionally she would see Blake sneak in and hit her opponent in the back, but as soon as they started to turn towards Blake, she would skip out of their reach, and Ruby's assault would once again demand their attention. It continued in this manner for a while until Ruby felt Waning Rose bite into their aura and then the aura give quickly followed by the feeling of Waning Rose sinking into the flesh of their shoulder and then by the feeling of Waxing Rose biting into their side. Ruby spun left as they lunged at her with their sword, swinging with Waxing and Waning Rose, Waxing Rose goin in low and Waning Rose going in high. Each creating a gash in her opponent's back as they went past her. Ruby's next attack with Waning Rose cut her opponent's leg to the bone, and Waxing Rose sliced her opponent's mask, as well as the face underneath it. Unable to hold themselves up on their damaged leg, her opponent collapsed to the ground, and then Ruby was upon them, and ripping off the mask that hid their face just in time to see them bite into something.

Smiling at her was a face that Ruby would recognize from anywhere even if it had been a close to a decade since she had last seen him. Rory cackled madly from his spot underneath Ruby, "Didn't expect to see me, did you Ruby?"

Ruby grabbed him by his shirt, "Who do you work for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Rory asked in a sing-song voice. Ruby didn't know what had happened but it was clear that Rory had lost all sense of sanity. "My Master gave me two messages for you. One was for if I managed to kill you - which quite frankly I would have much rather been able to deliver. The other was if you managed to kill me and was this: Well done, Ms. Rose. I can't wait until our next encounter, hopefully it's in a much less...gruesome situation." As soon as he was finished with reciting his message, Rory grabbed a handgun from it's holster on his thigh, put it against his temple and pulled the trigger before Ruby could do anything. Ruby let go of Rory's lifeless corpse and stood up. She looked over at her faunus companion and sighed, "Come on. Let's go bag up those drives, and get out of here."

Blake nodded, and as soon as she was turned her back on the driver, Ruby stuck her hand in her pocket and fingered the flash drive she'd placed there before drawing Waning and Waxing Rose. _Who are you from? Why did they give you to me? And most importantly, what is on you?_

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Ruby and Blake were entering the clearing for the extraction point where they found a bullhead waiting with Qrow leaning against its side.

Ruby narrowed her eyes at her former mentor, "Qrow, I thought you had a broken leg."

The grizzled hunter smiled and shook his head, "Yeah, about that. I wanted to see how you would do without my help. In fact, my parachute? Worked just fine. So did you get them?"

Ruby nodded as she stepped onto the bullhead, only able to think one thing. _How much trouble would I get in if I push him out of this bullhead while we're in the air?_

Ruby leaning her chair back onto two legs, keeping her balance by gripping the table with both hands until the door to the debriefing room - _more like interrogation room_ \- opened and a man with silver hair, glasses on his nose, and a cane walked in with a cup of coffee. Someone Ruby instantly recognized as Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy.

Ozpin sat down at the table, placing a folder on top of it as he did so. "Ms. Rose. You are...a difficult person to gather information on to say the least." Ozpin opened his folder, and glanced inside. "In fact, we can find zero records of you from anytime in which you weren't in direct contact with Qrow." Ozpin spun the folder around and slid it across the table to rest directly in front of Ruby.

Placing the chair back on all four legs, Ruby found pages of reports by Qrow, all detailing her progress as he trained her. Ruby looked up at Qrow, "He kept records of me?"

Ozpin sipped from his cup of...something. "Yes, he did. Upon my request of course. I mean, who wouldn't want to learn more about the one person who actually managed to be reason enough for Qrow to stop his incessant drinking after the death of both his sister and his former partner. In fact, it was I who okayed many of the missions on which he used to take you to train you, and it was I who told him that provided he could convince you to do so was willing to admit you to Beacon almost four years early. Which begs the question, why did you refuse?"

Ruby stood up, shaking her head, "I was told by Qrow that I had to come here for a debriefing, not to be psychoanalyzed, and most definitely not to have my life choices questioned."

Qrow shrugged, "I've already got your mission report in digital format, and have no reason to doubt you over it. Really I asked Qrow to send you here because I wanted to meet the girl who was able to redeem him even if it was only for a few years from his wallowing in misery and alcohol. He would never allow his drinking to affect his teaching but...outside of that both before meeting you and after you turned down his offer, he's been but a shell of what he used to be. Not even his love for his own niece was enough. And the only thing he asked in return was to once again offer you the chance to become a Huntress."

The driver walked around the table and turned the door handle expecting to find it locked but pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't. Ruby looked back at Ozpin, "I appreciate the offer but no."

Ruby was almost out the door before she was stopped by the sound of Ozpin's voice, "Ms. Rose? I have something for you."

The redhead stepped back into the room, and looked over to see Ozpin holding a scroll. She stepped over and took it finding that it held all of the reports that had been in the folder as well as a small amount of other information on her most of which was out of date. She looked back up at him.

Ozpin smiled back at her, "It's everything we have on you. Take it as a show of good faith. Qrow told me that you have a penchant for collecting information, and I figured this might interest you."

Ruby nodded once before turning her attention back to the scroll, and walking back out the door.

* * *

Ruby strode towards where Blake and Qrow were leaned against two cars waiting for her, talking. On her way out of the station, Ruby had come up with a wonderful idea, now the only thing left to do was-.

"Ruby! Just the person I was wanting to see, I've been talking to Blake here and managed to convince her to go to Beacon Academy and become a Huntress. She's even agreed to come out and allow me to train and evaluate her for a little while."

Ruby stopped in her tracks, and just stared at Qrow, "You couldn't wait five minutes, could you? Five more minutes and you would have earned back some brownie points with me." Ruby shook her head, "I was just coming out here to ask if you would put in a good word for her, see that she gets accepted and train her for the next few months until the next year starts. Instead you just have to swoop in and take her instead, don't you?"

Ruby walked over to her car's driver side and opened the door before looking expectantly at Blake. "Come on, Blake. I have some stuff I want to give you before you go gallivanting off with this idiot."

Blake hurried over and got into the car while Ruby watched, and Ruby almost did the same before turning her attention back to Qrow, "And Qrow, if I so much as hear hints of you drowning your problems in alcohol once more, I will personally force alcohol down your throat until you can't drink anymore, and then pour more of it down your throat until I give you a phobia of drinking alcohol. When I'm done with you, you won't be able to look at alcohol without having a flashback."

* * *

The figure sat in the dark room, the only illumination coming from the computer screens on which played videos, all of which were of the same redhaired scythe-wielder in combat.

A door opened behind him, through which a silhouette stepped before shutting the door again. He heard the sound of heels clicking on the floor, and then the press of a hand on his shoulder. The voice that followed was one he knew well, "How did she perform?"

The figure reached over, grabbed the hand on his shoulder, and turned his head to place a kiss on the back of it, all the while keeping his eyes on the computer screen. "Flawlessly as always."

"And our present?"

"She kept it as we knew she would."

"I must ask, Sir. You already have me, why do you need her?"

He chuckled, "It's not a matter of need, my dear. It's more like I want her on our side. For two reasons. One, the joy as I steal their, oh so carefully trained queen from them will be absolutely delicious. And two, well," He smiled up at where he knew her face to be, "some kings do feel the need to keep two queens. It helps in case anything untoward were to happen to one of them."

* * *

Glynda stalked over to Ozpin's desk, and looked down to see him watching a video of one of Ruby's old missions with Qrow on his desktop, and by desktop it was literally playing on the top of his desk. "Did she take the scroll?"

Ozpin nodded before pausing the video and looking up at his old partner from his own time at Beacon, "Yes, just as Qrow said she would."

"What about the drives, did she copy them?"

"I would assume so. No one caught her doing it, but from what Qrow's told us she would never take the chance to miss getting information especially if she doesn't know what said information is."

Glynda sighed, "I don't see why we don't just arrest the girl and make her do as we say. She's nothing more than a two bit criminal."

"We can't do that Glynda. We need her on our side, not pretending to work for us while her and Junior work for our opposition instead. No, Ruby with all of her contacts, and skills is much too valuable to lose merely because we were impatient."

* * *

Ruby walked over to Blake who stood by the door to the apartment and handed her a scroll. Blake looked at the scroll, and then back at Ruby, "What's this for?"

The redhead gestured to the scroll, "On there is the information for your false identity, Blake Belladonna, and the credentials to access the account for your part of the payment from the mission."

Blake went through the scroll until she found the bank information, and her eyes almost bulged out of her head at the figure she say, "Five hundred thousand lien?!" She looked back up at Ruby, "How much were we paid?"

The driver shrugged, "I got a total of ten million lien. Five hundred thousand went towards paying you, and the other 9.5 million will go towards funding the dozen or so orphanages I'm running around the city and to opening a couple more. And don't worry about the false identity, it's the bare minimum so you have to make up as little as possible, and it's as legitimate as any real identification papers. I have a contact in the government who I had make them up, and input the information so as far as anyone else is concerned these are real."

After seeing Blake off, Ruby went into her room, threw the flash drive and her scroll onto her nightstand, and plopped face down onto her bed, only for her scroll to start going off letting her know Junior was calling. "What Junior? I just laid down, and I am tired so this had better be important."

" _Well, you see. There's this horrible yellow she-demon attacking the bar, and - oh my god -"_ Ruby could make out the sounds of crashing on the other side of the scroll, " _She is wrecking my bar. I really would appreciate it if you could come take care of this for me._ "

Ruby sighed in exasperation, "I'll be there in a few moments. Just...don't die in the meantime, alright? I don't want to have to replace you. It's not like there's a Morons R Us I can use to get a new one from if something were to happen to you."

" _Got it. Just get here - ahh! - as quickly as you can!"_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** ***Camera pans over to show Sparky1368 smashing a router with a sledgehammer. Sparky notices the camera and quickly throws the sledgehammer backstage - a small cry of pain can be heard from the back followed by a "Sorry, George." from Sparky - and Sparky quickly takes his place behind the podium.***

 **Hey guys. Sorry for the delay, my router decided that it would be a great idea to get fried when our power turned off during all this rain we've been having lately. I still haven't been able to replace it, and am currently using my recently rolled over data on my phone as a hotspot with which to post this chapter.**

 **I would also like to apologize for my lack of an author's note on the last chapter. I was operating on three hours of sleep, followed by a twenty two hours of wakefulness, and still had to go to sleep so I could wake up in five hours, and make it to the SPCA. So to make up for that thanks to those who favorited and followed last chapter and the chapter before, and thanks to TehUnoman, TetrisLame, and Misha for reviewing, and Misha there's the answer to your question. By the way, I noticed something that I found rather amusing while writing this chapter about the entire story overall can anyone tell what it is? I'll give you a hint it has to do with the RWBY until next chapter everyone, To Infinity and Beyond!**


	8. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Ruby climbed out of her two door car just in time to watch as Junior came sailing out of the bar and landed in a heap on the ground a few feet away from her. Looking up from Junior's crumpled but still breathing body, Ruby spied a tall blonde in a yellow midriff baring shirt, black short shorts, a brown midriff baring jacket, brown knee high platform boots, black gloves, orange thigh high socks with one only coming up to the top of her right boot, an orange scarf wrapped around her throat, a gray neckerchief wrapped around her left knee, a brown miniskirt that only covered her posterior, and gold bracelets that Ruby guessed turned into gauntlets of some kind coming out of the bar. Her hips swaying from side to side with each step she took. Something the redhead had noticed when Cinder stayed with her was that Cinder knew she was drop dead gorgeous, and used it like a tool in the same manner that Ruby would use her gun-scythes. This girl? She knew she was hot, and didn't shy away from it. The major difference though was that this girl didn't weaponize her beauty, she was merely secure in it.

The blonde looked from Junior to Ruby, back to Junior and then back to Ruby. She gestured to pile of man that was Junior, as she watched Ruby. When she spoke both her voice and her eyes were a mixture of unbridled joy and a wariness that hinted at a constant readiness to fight, "You with him? Because if so, I sincerely hope you put up more of a fight than everyone else has. I'm barely even warmed up!" This last comment was said with a grin.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Whatever Junior did, I'm sure he deserved what you did to him. And honestly? With as long of a day as I've had, I'm really not in the mood for a fight." Ruby said as she waved off Yang's question. Ruby strode over, grabbed Junior by the back of his shirt and started dragging him back inside, making sure to wave for the blonde to follow her inside. Walking behind the bar, Ruby left Junior in a pile on the floor mumbling unconsciously about she-demons while she started looking among the many broken bottles of alcohol for something that may have survived the rather evident one-sided brawl that had occurred inside the bar.

She glanced over her shoulder at the blonde, "You want anything?"

The blonde shrugged, "You know how to make a Strawberry Sunrise?"

"I'm the one who trains the bartenders here," Ruby said with a chuckle as she grabbed the grenadine from the shelf behind the bar, and then the creme de fraises and orange juice from the mini-fridge underneath the bar, and set them on the countertop. As she went in search of a surviving can of ginger ale that Junior tended to keep some of on hand for her, Ruby kept up the conversation with her blonde guest, "If it's not too much to ask, what exactly is your business with Junior? I might be able to help you."

"I'm actually looking for someone." The blonde slid her scroll across the bartop, as Ruby passed her still looking for a can of ginger ale.

Ruby snatched the scroll off the counter as she walked by and looked at it. On it was a picture of a woman. Ruby would have guessed the woman was in her twenties or thirties, except they held much too strong of a resemblance to her guest to be anything but a relative. Finally finding the can of ginger ale she was looking for, Ruby returned back to her place in front of the blonde, and beside Junior. She placed the scroll on the counter between her and the blonde, and her can beside it. "That your mom?"

The blonde looked startled for a moment before hiding it behind her cheerful facade once more. _Hmm, so she's not as happy as she wants others to believe she is._ Ruby was drawn out of her thoughts by the sound of the older girl's voice, "Yeah, it is."

Ruby dropped the grenadine into the bottom of the creme de fraises and orange juice mixture and waited for it to form its signature red spot in the drink before sliding it over to its drinker. "First off, I've never seen her before. So we can't help you there."

The blonde visibly deflated for a second, "I was hoping Junior had been lying but I guess he wasn't."

The driver held up her hand, popped her ginger ale open, and took a sip before continuing, "I said I've never seen her before. That doesn't mean I can't help you look for her."

The blonde gave the redhead a grin of gratitude and quickly took a gulp of her drink.

Ruby brushed off the suit jacket she had donned before heading over and leaned against the counter, "Secondly, since Junior," She nudged him with her foot and gave him a cursory glance as she said his name, "was too rude to introduce us." Ruby stuck out her hand to the blonde to be shaken, "My name is Ruby."

The blonde grabbed Ruby's hand, and gave it a strong shake, not one meant to intimidate but was just unconsciously strong, "I'm Yang Xiao Long but most people just call me Yang."

Ruby nodded and took another sip of her drink, "Now there is one last thing."

Yang looked up at her and raised her eyebrows. Her eyes slowly blinking, one a second or two behind the other one, "Hmm? And whas tha?"

The redhead watched the blonde lay her head on an outstretched arm on the bar, and close her eyes as the sleeping Dust tablet Ruby had snuck into the drink kicked in, "I can't really have someone just coming in here and creating a mess of things without doing something about it and I'm really not in the mood for another fight."

The scythe-wielder looked down at Junior, "Junior, Junior, JUNIOR!" The first two calls of his name were accompanied by a gentle nudge. The third was a rather sharp kick to his rear end.

Junior jolted up, "I'm sorry! I'll get right on it!" As his senses slowly returned to him and he realised where he was, Junior looked up at Ruby, "Did you get rid of the mean lady?"

Ruby shook her head, "No, I didn't. In fact, she's right there." Ruby threw a thumb in the direction of the now slumbering mass of blonde hair.

The information broker peeked over the edge of the bar, ducked back behind it as he spied Yang's form, and then slowly raised himself to see over the countertop once more. When his eyes were just over the edge of the counter, he reached out and poked Yang in the arm once and jerked back slightly as if expecting to be bitten. He slowly stood up and straightened out his jacket as if he hadn't just been acting like a child who expected the evil vegetables to attack them. "Well, however you did it good job."

"I woke you up to let you know that I'm going to be helping her for the time being, and also to ask you why the bar was only guarded by the recruits and Melanie and Miltia. I know for a fact that I _fired_ those two last week for being incompetent, and that I had arranged for Charmant to be working tonight. Where is he?" The driver inquired as she walked around the bar, and lifted Yang in a fireman's carry.

"Charmant called and said he was going to be out tonight, something about not feeling well. And you weren't around for me to ask for recommendations, and...well...I figured that since they were already here asking for their jobs back, and we had all of these recruits that it should be more than enough. How was I supposed to know some blazing fire goddess of death and destruction would come in and wreck the place?!"

Ruby eyed her friend, "So call Charmant back and tell him if his photo shoots are so important then he can spend all of his time doing them, and that he's fired. Next, what part of 'incompetent' and 'recruits' did you not understand?"

Junior looked around the bar ignoring Ruby's question, "Oooh, this is going to be so expensive to repair!"

Sighing in exasperation, Ruby turned and headed out of the bar without another word.

* * *

Yang blearily opened her eyes and raised her hand to block the sunlight streaming through the window. As she looked around the room, she was immediately struck by two things, 1) she had no idea where she was or how she got there and 2) she didn't have a hangover which seemed strange considering how little she remembered of the night before.

The blonde swung her legs over the side of the bed, stood up and strode over to a window moving the curtain a little to the side in order to get a better view of the outside to see if she could jog her memory. The view of the outside was spectacular. The house was situated on a hill overlooking the rest of the city of Vale. From what Yang could see the grounds the house was situated on wasn't overly large, but what there was was carefully manicured with hedges, flowers, trees dotting the landscape and even had a low stone wall surrounding the yard.

 _Yep, I have no clue where I am._

Turning Yang headed towards the open door through which she could see a hallway. Stepping out into it. Yang looked to her left and right to find herself in a hallway, lined with doors on either side of it. To her left the hallway split into a T intersection while her right led to a screen door that presumably led onto the porch and from there the front yard. Noticing an open door, and the sound of a voice, the brawler turned and headed towards the open door. When she reached it and stepped through, she found herself in a kitchen watching as someone messed around with a laptop with one hand as she stirred something in a saucepan with the other.

Hearing her step in, the figure closed the laptop and threw a glance over their shoulder at Yang, "Sit the food will be done in a minute."

As she heard the woman's voice, the memories of last night snapped back to her. Yang's initial reaction was alarm, but she quickly tamped it down as she realized that had the redhead wanted to actually harm her she would have already done it by now. _Anyways she did say she was going to help me, and she doesn't give me the feeling that she's one to break her word._ Doing as she was told, Yang sat at the table off to the side of the kitchen and watched as Ruby continued cooking. "How long was I out?"

"Uh, it's almost nine in the morning now so roughly eight hours." Ruby said as she walked over and placed a pan of grits on the table. She then proceeded to grab a thick manila folder off of the counter when she went back to grab the bacon and eggs both of which she plopped down on the table in front of Yang.

Yang grabbed one of the plates already waiting on the table, and started loading it up with food. As she went to take a bite she paused just long enough to watch Ruby take a bit of her own food before putting it in her mouth. They ate in silence for a few minutes until the blonde cracked and grinned, "You know most girls just ask if they want me to go home with them."

Ruby looked up from her plate, grinned back, and without missing a beat said "Maybe I was scared you'd say no."

Yang laughed and then went back to eating, every now and then taking a sip of the orange juice Ruby got up to pour for the two of them. Finally after finishing a few seconds after the redhead, Yang leaned back and tapped the folder, "What's this?"

"That," Ruby started as she got up to start clearing the dishes from their breakfast, "is a list of people that could potentially help us find your mother's whereabouts. People who specialize in making false identification papers, providing safe-houses, everything a person might need to disappear."

The brawler opened her mouth only to be cut off by the redhead, "I already know everything that there is to know about her disappearance. All I needed was your name which you were more than kind enough to provide last night. You're Yang Xiao Long. You grew up in Patch as the daughter of one Taiyang Xiao Long and one Raven Branwen. You're the niece of my former mentor, Qrow Branwen, as well of the step-daughter of one -"

Ruby was interrupted as Yang suddenly started slapping the table, and choking on her orange juice in shock. The blonde finally managed to clear her airway, "You mean that you're _that_ Ruby? The one Uncle Qrow would always speak so proudly of?"

Ruby nodded, "Yes, anyways back to business. Your mother, father, uncle, and step-mother were all Hunters on the same team in Beacon. Your mother disappeared shortly after having you, and then just a few years later your step-mother was killed fighting Grimm.". Ruby pointed to the folder, "In there is everything that I managed to gather as possible leads to help find her. You might as well look through it, and familiarise yourself with its contents."

Yang opened the folder to do just that until her attention was caught by a photograph on the top of it of a girl that looked vaguely like Yang just brutally beat up lying on the floor of Junior's bar. She help the photo up, "What is this?"

Ruby looked up from where she was messing with her scroll, "Oh, that. I took a photo of you while you were passed out and edited it to make it look as if that was what was left after getting rid of the attacker of Junior's bar. I do have a reputation to keep after all."

* * *

Ruby sat cross-legged on the building's air conditioning unit, as she watched Yang walk around the corner of a building almost two blocks away. The past two weeks had been...interesting to say the least. During them Ruby had basically been running two different investigations simultaneously. The first investigation was her investigation with Yang in finding her mother which, at least as far as Yang was concerned, had yet to yield any real results. The second was a personal investigation she had started after noticing some things throughout the course of the first investigation.

Ruby leapt to her feet as she heard a faint whirring start up, quickly followed by the sight of a woman dressed in red and black seemingly stepping out of thin air. The driver silently walked up behind the woman and tapped her on the shoulder causing her to quickly spin around in surprise. The redhead clasped her hands behind her back, and cocked her head to the side. "How long have you been watching me?"

Ruby could see the tension in the woman's stance, and knew that behind the mask that covered her face her eyes were likely darting from place to place as she tried to think of what to do.

"Don't bother trying to open a portal and escape through it, I'm fast enough that I'll just follow you through."

The woman's shoulder sagged in defeat before she pulled off the mask to reveal the face of Raven Branwen, "How long have you known?"

The redhead shrugged, "I didn't even have any suspicions until you're daughter came to visit. Then I was running a facial recognition program on videos from cameras all over Vale in which I could make you out from a distance in the same shot as me. I'll only say this once more, and if you don't answer I'm going to go down there and tell Yang what I've found out. Capische? How long have you been watching me?"

"Roughly two years."

"So ever since Qrow stopped training me?"

Raven nodded.

Ruby turned and started to head towards the maintenance door that led off of the building's roof. She reached the door and then turned back to Raven, "I'm going to tell Yang that you're alive. For now, I won't tell her what I know other than the fact that you're doing covert missions for the government. You have six months. If you don't reveal yourself to her and tell her everything then I will. And you don't want me to tell her everything because in six months I'll have managed to gather everything you've done for the past twenty years since disappearing from her life and I won't leave out a single sordid detail. Also I have a message for Ozpin that I want you to give him. I'm going to be ever vigilant from here on out, and if I find out that he has anyone else watching...well the message I use them to convey won't be verbally delivered."

The redhead then walked through the door and started walking down the stairs, heading back to Yang.

* * *

"So she's alive?"

Ruby nodded as she stirred her decaf coffee. She then waited to actually answer until after she had taken a sip. _Eew! Definitely needs more sugar._ "She's alive on that scroll is a list of cities that I've been able to find evidence of her in from five years ago to just over six months ago. Of course, in the meantime anything could have happened to her but since she's managed to survive this long I doubt that anything has."

Yang beamed at the driver, "Thank you so much, Ruby! Dad will be so glad to hear that she's alive. I wonder what she's been doing all this time though?"

The redhead shrugged, "It's all on that scroll but everything I've found indicates that she's been doing some undercover operations for the government. It's entirely possible that she's been working the same job this entire time and couldn't tell your father and you without endangering herself and the entire operation. I didn't bother telling you anything until now merely because I didn't want to get your hopes up without sufficient evidence."

Yang looked down at the scroll and then back at Ruby, "I know I've already said it once but thank you so much, Ruby. I don't know how I'll ever pay you back."

Ruby chuckled, "Don't worry about it, but if you really feel the need just keep quiet about how the picture was a fake, and don't cause problems in Junior's and my territory again. Now onto other topics, what will you do now that you have that information?"

The brawler shrugged, "I actually didn't come to Vale just to look for my mother. I came here for my evaluation to get into Beacon. Normally I would have taken it back at Signal, but in order to make sure that there was no bias in the results since both my uncle and father are professors at Signal I instead had to come here to do it."

"Well, here's to hoping you do well on your evaluation." Ruby raised her cup of coffee and Yang tapped her glass of soda against it, "And after you become a Huntress, remember me if you need any information on things, alright?"

Yang nodded, "I think I can do that."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** **Well this one is definitely shorter than the average chapter - about half the average word length for those curious - but honestly it covered everything that I wanted it too so I'm at least content with it. I actually had a feeling that this chapter was going to be shorter, and since I don't know what life has planned to throw at me in the days coming decided to go ahead and get this one put out while I still have data on my phone. Hence it being posted a day and a half later.**

 **Thanks to those who favorited and followed after last chapter, and thanks to Misha for reviewing.**

 **And Misha, I promise I had this chapter planned out well in advance of your review. I didn't write it this way to make you wrong...or did I?*Places pinky on the corner of mouth and laughs like Doctor Evil*. And of course Ozpin and everyone else is plotting, I did say Ruby was going to be pulled into a game of intrigue after all. I'm also really glad you're enjoying the story.**

 **Fav or follow if you think I deserve it. Review or send me a PM if you want to, or if you have a question or comment whether you think the story is good or not and let me know what you do/don't like about it. I guess that's everything, so until next chapter guys. George! Put down the radioactive kitten before you grow a third eye or something.**

 **Update: It's been five minutes and I'm already fixing this chapter who'd have thunk it (yes, i know thunk isn't proper shove off). Turns out if you put a horizontal line break in in the document maker that I currently use to type up the story it doesn't translate over to properly.**


	9. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Looks like trouble just walked through the door," Charlotte said as she pointed behind Ruby with the same hand she'd just been using to wipe down the counter.

Ruby straightened up, and started turning around, "What do you - uugh! Seriously? Tonight of all nights?" Her original question quickly turning into a groan as she caught sight of the babyfaced - so what if he was still a year or two older than Ruby that didn't change the fact that he had a babyface - young cop that had just walked through the door of the recently repaired club.

The cop - whom Ruby had decided would be called Cupid for the rest of this encounter - came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs that were in the entrance of the bar. His eyes scanned the crowd, quickly passing over most of the occupants and only slowing slightly on others. By the time he found what he was looking for, Ruby was already halfway to him.

Following his line of sight, Ruby quickly altered her trajectory to intercept him. The redhead winced every time she saw him forcefully push past someone, and heard him say, in a raised voice, that he was an officer and people needed to get out of his way.

Deliberately slowing her pace for a moment to allow him to pass her, she stepped up behind him, grabbed his arm, and started dragging him with her towards the side door of the club with him trying to pull away, and shouting at her the entire time she did it. Pushing her way through the door into the alley, Ruby roughly threw the officer of the law to the ground.

Landing in an undignified heap, he quickly pulled himself to his feet in a failed attempt to save his dignity, "I am an officer of the Vale Police Department! What -"

Stepping into his personal space, and putting her face in his Ruby forced him back with sheer intimidation. If looks were able to kill, Ruby's would have had him strung up in a torture room on the wrack as it slowly carved out a one inch square of flesh from various parts of his body and rubbed salt in the resulting wounds, "I don't care what you're an officer of! I'm Special Agent Jade of the Kingdom of Vale's Bureau of Investigation." Ruby bluffed, pulling out her wallet and flipping to a fake KVBI ID Badge as she did so. "You almost ruined a case that I've been working on for the past year and a half! Not to mention, do you know why we don't have people patrolling this part of Vale? Because they all get killed! You just walked into a Grimm's nest full of Elder Deathstalkers and the only reason you made it out alive was because I was there to bail you out before you got stung!"

Quickly cowed before Ruby's shouting, and her clear sign of authority in the form of the KVBI badge, Cupid backed down as well as stepping back. "I - I didn't know! How was I supposed to know?!"

Not giving him the chance to keep his distance, Ruby once again stepped into his personal bubble, "If you had listened to your superiors in training you would have known not to come anywhere near this part of Vale! Instead you saw a chance to earn yourself a little glory, and tried to take it rather than taking into account the likely risk to your life! Now get out of here, and if you ever mess with one of my investigations again I will personally ensure that you are demoted so much that you'll be in training for the next thirty years!"

The driver followed Cupid out of the alley and watched as he climbed into his car and drove off. Hearing snickers behind her, she spun on the two goons who were supposed to be acting as bouncers for the place. She jabbed her fingers in their direction, "And you two."

Even from ten feet away, Ruby could hear the sounds of the two gulping in fear.

"You're supposed to keep things like this from happening. Now I have to go in there and calm the feathers of our more shady patrons. You didn't even bother to radio in that he was on his way. What the hell happened?"

The two idiots looked at each other and Ruby could see the silent argument that passed between them prior to the shorter one of the two stepping forward. "Well...you see...he threatened us with obstruction of justice if we didn't let him in and also if we bothered to let anyone know inside that he was on the way in-"

Activating her semblance, Ruby surged forward and lifted the bouncer up by his throat and slammed him against the wall. She put her face in his as she growled her next words, "I don't care if someone threatens to put a bullet in your head if you don't do as they say, the only people you take orders from are me, Junior, and those we okay. You should know this though next time I hear of either of you not doing as you're ordered to by one of us, they won't find either of your bodies because I'll have fed both of them to the Grimm. You're on door duty. That means you're expendable."

Dropping the now purple-faced moron on the ground, Ruby stalked back inside only to see Junior in a very heated discussion with the gentleman that Cupid had come in for in the back of the club. Sighing, Ruby started down the stairs and towards the back.

"-keep things like this from happening! It's the entire reason that you're little operation has been allowed to go on for as long as it has. If you can't back up your claims then maybe it's time that I meet up with some others and shut you down." The fellow who said this was maybe five foot five, and a hundred sixty pounds and had green hair that stuck up in spikes all over his head. Not physically imposing Ruby knew Al-fris packed a lot more punch than one would think he could. HIs Semblance enabled him to create a spectral armor and shield around himself that could negate all incoming damage for as long as his aura could sustain it.

At one time he'd been a hunter-in-training but was kicked after he killed a fellow trainee in a fit of blind rage. Afterwards it came out that he had ties to the underworld and with his attention fully devoted to that course, he'd quickly risen through the ranks of his gang until he killed the former leader and took over.

Ruby came to a stop beside the two and raised an eyebrow, "What was that Al-fris? Do you have a problem with the way we're running this establishment? I got rid of the cop before any lasting damage could be done."

"But is he dead?" Al-fris turned towards her and sneered. "Of course he isn't because you're too much of a coward to kill a cop, aren't you? You think you're so big and bad but you're not. You may have convinced everyone else that the two of you are these big shots but I'm not stupid. I can see the truth. I can recognize a coward when I see one. Trust me, _girl_ , you reek of cowardice, and when we steamroll over the two of you and take back these parts of the city. I plan on having a lot of fun with you."

Ruby's eyes hardened, the normally bright silver darkening to that of a cold hard steel, "No, I'm not too scared to kill him. I'm just not stupid enough to resort to murder when I can solve it through another means. Unlike some people in this conversation." She purposely ignored the second part of his tirade.

The gang leader didn't bother responding. He just spit at Ruby's feet before walking off with his cronies.

Ruby looked down at the spit on both the floor and her shoes before looking up at Al-fris's retreating back. "Yeah, he's not getting away with that."

* * *

Ruby stepped into her apartment, riffling through her mail as she did so. "Junk, junk, junk. Coupons for that bakery down the street, sweet! Bill, junk, bill."

Setting her keys down on the coffee table, Ruby stepped past Neo who was sitting in her customary spot on the couch, and ruffled the girl's hair, "Hey, Neo. Is Roman here? Oh, who am I kidding? It's not like you'll answer me either way."

Swatting at Ruby's hand, Neo glared and followed the redhead into the kitchen where she started pouring herself two glasses of milk and grabbed a box of chocolate covered strawberries. Gesturing for Neo to take one of the glasses of milk, she them back into the living room. The redhead sat in one of her chairs and opened the box of strawberries. The silence that followed was a comfortable one.

Neo's sudden appearance in Ruby's apartment wasn't anything new. A couple weeks after being introduced to the multicolored girl by Roman, Ruby had walked into her living room after waking up and found Neopolitan sitting on her couch, watching morning cartoons. Since then anytime Roman was busy with something and didn't have anything for the mute girl to do, she'd come over and hang out with Ruby. Sometimes nothing would be said. Sometimes Ruby would talk to Neo and never get a response. They'd occasionally go out and do something. Nevertheless, Ruby had formed a sort of bond with the girl that was only rivaled by Roman's bond with her even if she had never heard the multicolored girl utter a word...at least until now.

"I'm scared for Roman."

Ruby completely froze upon hearing the light melodic voice that came out of the girl. For several moments, for the first time in years, the redhead's mind came to a complete and utter stop. With her half-eaten strawberry in the same spot it was in when Neo uttered the first word of her sentence - that is halfway to her mouth - Ruby turned her head and stared at Neo for several seconds before shaking her head and restoring her proper mental faculties. "Why is that?"

"This job he's doing. I have a bad feeling about it. Like something bad is going to happen and there's nothing I can do to stop it."

Ruby nodded, set down her strawberry and milk on the table, and wiped off her lower lip, and the corners of her mouth with her thumb and forefinger. She nodded, in thought this time, before speaking, "Okay. That's a start. Have you talked with him about this feeling?"

The shorter girl nodded and wrung her hands. "Yes, I have. Except he just waved it off, and said not to worry. He said that it paid well, and shouldn't be too dangerous. I just - I'm scared, Ruby. I don't know what to do, and I'm scared that I'm going to lose my only friend. I looked for information on this Cinder lady who hired him and the organization she says she's part of, and found nothing. And when I say nothing, I mean that there was literally nothing to be found on either of the two subjects. We don't even know why she's having us do all of this."

"The only thing I can tell you, Neo, is this. Be there for him. There's not really anything else you can do. You've tried speaking to him about your fears, and he didn't listen. So just be there in case things go wrong, and pick him back up like you always do."

The illusionist stood up, looking noticeably calmer. "You're right. He's always been there for me, so I guess it's only fair that I do the same for him."

As Neo turned away, Ruby stood up and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from leaving. "Why me? Why after all this time are you finally speaking and to me of all people? Why did you even choose me in the first place to hang out with?"

The shorter girl looked up at the driver and smiled ruefully, "The same reason, everyone else is drawn to you. Because you're a good person, and you know when to ask questions, and when not to. You have this magnetism about you that just makes us like you." She shrugged, "What other reason do I need?"

Ruby furrowed her brow in confusion, "Huh? What do you mean by 'us'?"

"You'll figure it out eventually." She paused, and smiled a little more brightly this time. "And I guess I should rephrase my earlier statement, huh? I guess I can't count Roman as my only friend anymore, can I? Not after actually talking to you." With that last parting shot, the image of her in front of Ruby shattered into a thousand pieces before fading away.

* * *

Sighing, Ruby squeezed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, before raising her head. She turned towards the girl beside her. "Helia, who chose this lot? They're worthless."

Helia shrugged, "Don't ask me. I just got back today, I've been out for the count for the past two months or so. Remember?"

Ruby turned back around and stepped forwards, the heels of her combat boots creating an echo as they struck the floor of the hangar they were currently in. She watched the recruits currently sparring with one another and started walking among them, hoping to see something that she had missed from a distance. Helia beside her the entire time.

Helia was Ruby's second-in-command of the spies, for lack of a better term, of Junior's organization. Having run into the girl for the first time when Ruby caught her with her hand in the redhead's pocket almost four years ago, rather than get angry, Ruby had been impressed by her audacity and skill at actually getting her hand in Ruby's pocket before being found. The two quickly became friends and as Ruby's role in Junior's criminal activities grew, Helia had inevitably been pulled in alongside her.

Standing at just over 5'2", Helia had pale skin, strawberry blonde hair, streaked with true blonde, that she kept pulled back into a ponytail, and eyes the same colour as an emerald. Her outfit, as per her role as Ruby's second-in-command of the shadow part of Junior's organization, was a form-fitting black long-sleeve shirt, tight black cargo pants, and black combat boots.

Her Semblance made her perfect for her job. Constantly absorbing small amounts of light through her skin, the light served two functions. One the light was constantly feeding her Aura making her heal much faster than even most other Aura users. Secondly, she was able to release it all in one giant blinding burst that also happened to almost completely drain her Aura. The quality that was so useful to her part of the shadow operations though was her ability to suck all of the light in a room in at once making it pitch black, and allowing her to escape without being seen. There was a drawback to all of this though after releasing the light in a burst, she became light sensitive and had to stay in pitch black rooms for almost two months. Any contact with light, and she would develop rashes and blisters, and her skin would scale and bleed.

Helia followed along a half-stride behind Ruby, "I don't know if you noticed this but the quality of our recruits of late have been dropping severely and it's not for lack of our scouts trying to find decent quality people, but it's almost as if the good ones are disappearing before we can get ahold of them."

Ruby nodded, "I have noticed that. The question now is what's happening to them?"

* * *

A month passed after Cupid's bumble and Neo's visit. A month in which absolutely nothing out of the ordinary really happened. A month that as each day wore on, Ruby started to worry more and more. Things had been happening around her quickly and then they just stopped. That was never a good sign. To distract herself, Ruby focused her attention on three things.

The first was in looking at all of the information she had copied from the drives Qrow had her grab as well as the flash drive she'd found. Sadly, she hadn't found as much time to look through those as she'd have liked and as a result hadn't gotten very far on it.

Secondly she threw herself into finding as much information as she could on Cinder and her organization. Much like Neopolitan though, she came up with naught. A fact more worrying than anything she could imagine finding. Organizations that didn't leave any trace whatsoever were always the most dangerous.

Her final project was more successful, and that was planning her payback on Al-fris. He had alluded to knowing more about her role than she was comfortable about anyone knowing. He had also insulted her and Junior in their own territory. Both of these were an offense that she couldn't let stand.

Ruby flicked through the information on the scroll that Helia had just handed to her. "This is everything?"

Helia nodded, "Yep. Everything. Is it enough?"

Ruby nodded, "For now."

She plugged the scroll into the table, pulled up a hologram, and looked at the others sitting around the table. "Here's what we're going to do."

Ruby pressed the button on the earpiece she was wearing, "Everyone in position?"

"Affirmative."

"Yep."

"Ready-o."

"Uh-huh."

Ruby stood up from the bench she was sitting on and started walking towards the building across the street from her. "Then commence Operation Cupid."

Named after the cop whose actions had led to this operation, Operation Cupid's sole purpose was the annihilation of Al-fris's entire gang. The past month had been filled with information gathering, Ruby's people infiltrating Al-fris's gang, planning and a whole slew of other things needed for an operation such as this. All of it led to this though.

Al-fris's gang was spread throughout the entire city with territory being held in several different parts of the city under the rule of Al-fris's lieutenants. At the major hangout for each of the lieutenants was a team of Ruby's people. Ruby's job was made simpler by the fact that Al-fris expected his members to dedicate themselves solely to his gang and as such made them drop all their other ties and move in with his lieutenants. Ruby's people each had a list that had the names and pictures of all of the members of Al-fris's gang, and were tasked with finding, killing or capturing every member. By the time they were done, nothing would be left of his gang.

Ruby was at Al-fris's personal hideout and was all on her own.

The driver reached the door to the hideout and promptly kicked it open with a Semblance boosted kick. She stepped inside the lobby of the apartment building and waited.

She didn't have long to wait because only moments later several people came running in with guns at the ready, and pointed at her.

She raised her hands to show she wasn't holding a gun, and took a step towards them. She grinned behind the pitch black mask each of her people were wearing this night. "Take me to Al-fris. I have matters of great import to speak with him about."

The four underlings looked among one another before one gestured with his gun first at one of the others and then at Ruby, clearly telling him to search her.

As he approached her, Ruby looked at him and then at the one who seemed to be the leader, "I wouldn't let him touch me if I were you. I can't guarantee his - or your - survival if he does."

The one who had been walking over to search her paused and looked back for directions, the leader once again gestured to Ruby.

Ruby exhaled deeply as the man got within five feet of her, and shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

He reached out one hand to pat her down with one hand as he held his gun in the other and Ruby exploded into Semblance enhanced motion. She grabbed his wrist with one hand, jerked him towards herself, and struck out with an open palm driving the cartilage of his nose up at an angle directly into his brain and killing him almost instantaneously.

She let go of his wrist and raised her hands once more. "Take me to Al-fris."

The remaining three looked at each other and then quickly stepped back creating space for her to get past them, clearly wanting her somewhere they could keep an eye on her.

Doing as they wanted, Ruby stepped past them and started up the stairs behind them. Taking the occasional verbal cue from the "guards" following behind her - seriously, what idiots didn't leave someone behind to watch the entrance to the building? - she traveled up the stairs until she reached the top floor, and then traveled from there to a door at the end of the hallway. One of her escorts skirted past her and opened the door making sure not to touch her as he did so.

As the door opened Ruby was assaulted by an amalgamation of several different kinds of smoke and the sounds of music and rutting. The escort who opened the door led Ruby through the apartment to what Ruby could only guess was the den of the apartment. To find the sight of Al-fris going at it with an emaciated girl who was clearly addicted to one of the more hardcore drugs.

"OH GAWD. YES, YES, YES, UGH!" Al-fris shouted like a porn star in some third rate triple x movie just before collapsing on top of the girl who was motionless and staring blankly up at the ceiling.

The guard took another step forward, "Um...Mr. Ontono. There's someone here to see you."

Al-fris pushed himself up to a halfway-sitting position holding himself up with one arm, "You realize now that I have to kill you right? I explicitly told you not to interrupt me for any reason but first who is it?"

"Um...I actually-"

The driver pushed herself past the witless guard, "Who I am doesn't really matter. Why I'm here does." Before any of them could react, Ruby drew the silenced handgun she had hidden in a concealed pocket on her pants made just for it and put a round in the head of all of the guards, and the girl Al-fris had been sleeping with and was across the room crouched on the couch behind him with her arm wrapped around his throat cutting off his air supply.

She placed her mouth next to Al-fris' ear and growled into it, "You came into my home and threatened me? That was a really _really_ bad idea and that's ignoring the fact that you hinted at way too much knowledge of my role in mine and Junior's little operation. As we speak - well more as I speak since you can't really breathe right now - my people are killing or capturing everyone who's a part of your gang. Once I'm done with you I'm going to place burn crystals on the stairway landing of every floor of this apartment, and set them off all at once burning this place down with you and everyone else inside it alive."

"Don't worry about innocents being injured. I've been secretly buying out this entire block of buildings and the surrounding blocks and clearing them out of anyone who might possibly be hurt that shouldn't be. One of my people will have informed the fire department of an apartment fire at this location in," She checked the watch she had worn for just this moment, "About five minutes. Of course with all of the chaos going on in the city right now, it'll likely take them a while to get here hence me buying out the location. I'm actually hoping that the fire manages to take out most of the block because then we don't have to spend anywhere near as much on demolition and clearance expenditures to rebuild this area."

"I know you're likely wondering how I plan on leaving you alive in the building and not have to worry about you following along behind me. Well the answer is actually pretty simple. With my arm around your throat you're unable to create your spectral armor without armoring me as well since you're armor extends to anything covering you. Because you can't use your Semblance, I can use this." With her free hand Ruby grabbed a hypodermic needle and uncapped the tip with her teeth. "Inside of this is a paralyzing agent. It'll prevent you from doing anything other than looking around. Don't worry though you'll be able to feel everything as the fire consumes you and I have enough here to paralyze a small Goliath which should be more than enough to counteract the healing effects of your Aura."

Pushing the needle into his upper left arm, Ruby slowly injected the paralyzing agent into his bloodstream. Afterwards she just waited a moment until his entire body went limp and unceremoniously released her armhold on his neck, his body slumping and falling off the couch headfirst. His head making an audible thump as it collided with the floor.

Stepping off the couch, Ruby straightened her clothing and walked across the room to the desk set against the wall where she could see a scroll that was turned on and had something pulled up on it. Curious, she picked it up and found that it was a message to Al-fris:

 _Dear Mr. Al-fris Ontono,_

 _We are so pleased to hear that you are open to negotiations. We understand that relations of late have been rather strained due to the recent conflicts of interest among our two enterprises, but after looking at everything you and your people have to offer, we now see a potentially very profitable partnership between us in the future. Our people will get in contact with you as soon as they get to Vale._

 _Until next we speak,_

 _O_

" _Everything you and your people have to offer? Clashes of interest?" What was Al-fris getting himself into?_ Furrowing her brow in confusion, Ruby pocketed the scroll and set about her business.

It was only a short time later that Ruby was setting off the Dust crystals and watching the building burn. If Al-fris had bothered to take better care of the building, she would have been worried about people escaping via the fire escapes, but luckily he was dumb enough that he'd let them fall apart like he had most of the building. Standing there for a few moments, Ruby watched as people started jumping from the windows. Some made it, others not so much. Having a few survivors was just fine though, she'd chosen this as the place where people would scatter from. With Al-fris dead, and all of his lieutenants dead, his gang was over with. These would be the ones who joined the other gangs and from them would sprout the rumors of what happened.

* * *

Ruby watched as her people set fire to the pile of the bodies of those they had captured and killed execution style and everything that had been utilized in the actual carrying out of the operation including clothes, guns, papers, everything that could potentially be used to link them back to what had gone down the night before.

Helia walked up beside her and watched the resulting conflagration with her, watching as those who'd been chosen beforehand ran back and forth keeping the fire contained in the clearing of the forest far outside of the boundaries of the kingdom of Vale. "Well, the operation was a success. We only had five of our people actually injured, and none of it was fatally or permanently."

Ruby nodded and drew the scroll she'd taken from Al-fris's den out of her pocket. Without saying a word, she handed it to Helia.

Quickly reading the message, Helia looked up at Ruby, "Who is this? What business did they have with Al-fris?"

The driver shrugged, "I really don't know. The part that worries me the most though, Helia, is that I've been saying that about way too many things of late. I think it's time that I take a leave from my usual business as a driver and start doing some snooping of my own."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** **Oh look it's been twenty fucking days since an update. Big surprise there. Fucking depression.** _ **sighs.**_ **Sorry for the hiatus guys. I got a new router a couple of days after my last update but then my depression worsened again, schoolwork increased, and my muse abandoned me. I finally managed to track her down and currently have her hogtied and stuffed in a barrel in my basement. SHUT UP, GEORGE 2.0! I know our water table is too high for a basement. I was speaking figuratively, dammit! I thought I fixed the mouthy aspect of you when I recreated you after the island the last cloning farm was on was horribly bombed.**

 **Thanks to those of you who favorited and followed last chapter. Thanks to Misha, Crushcommando, Xplsov, and Senten (I'm not sure which to refer to you as since you reviewed under SentenHyakurai, but followed under something else) for reviewing.**

 **Don't worry Misha, I have every intention of satiating your desire to see a fight between Yang and Ruby at some point. Other than that you're just going to have to wait and see how things evolve. And for the love of all that's holy in six different religions make an account so I can actually respond to your reviews.**

 **Like I told Crushcommando in a PM, I actually do like the Malachite sisters if they're done right (I wish Miltia would just go ahead and throw Weiss off the top of a building in Four Deadly Secrets already just to get rid of the competition for Ruby). In fact, I already have another story bouncing around in my head, that I plan on starting after finishing this one. Although it did take me fifty thousand words just to get past what I am currently thinking of as the introductory arc to the story so...this could go on for a while.**

 **To address Xplsov's comment on clunky sections of my writing (we actually had a very pleasant discussion about writing in heneral via PMs) if you have any tips or see any problems like parts seeming clunky please tell me either by review or PM. I love getting feedback on my writing. The only way I can know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong is by getting feedback from all of you. I may suffer from depression How did this chapter feel xplsov? Any of those clunky parts we were talking about, or did I manage to break it up enough?**

 **Senten, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far and I appreciate you pointing out that mistake in chapter two. I thought I had got all of those. I really should edit more or get a beta, I even had someone offer, but my schedule is fucked up so much I'm usually finishing a chapter (read more often than not writing the entire chapter/most of the chapter) just minutes before I post it and often at completely ridiculous times of the day that I either don't have time to edit it (I mean it. All my editing is done after i post the chapters and even then it's rare, I think I've only edited like the prologue, the first two chapters and the last two and the last two were only to add line breaks since they don't transfer over very well) or don't want to burden anyone else with my ungodly writing schedule.**

 **I'm glad that so far so many people are enjoying the story, and I hope I manage to keep doing that. Whether you liked the story or you didn't please post a review or send me a PM letting me know how you feel and why. Fav or follow if you feel I deserve it, and if you happen to frequent Reddit, I recently created a new account under this same alias where you might find me on the RWBY subreddit on occasion. Feel free to stop and talk to me in the comment section of something or send me a PM there if you feel like it. I'll let you go now, this A/N has gotten long enough as is. Until next chapter guys.**


	10. Chapter 8

Ruby's head snapped to the side under the force of the blow causing her to stumble backwards and shake her head in an attempt to return to her senses. As her vision cleared she just barely managed to catch sight of her lumbering opponent stepping forward to continue his assault early enough to sway backwards out of range of his fist.

Not expecting her to recover so quickly, her opponent was thrown off-balance by his right hook, a fact Ruby made sure to capitalize upon.

Taking a step towards her opponent to get within his reach, the redhead activated her Semblance and rained a series of blows upon her attacker's torso. Two quick underhanded jabs from her left hand connected with her opponent's lower ribs and were followed by a straight from her right hand that slammed into her opponent's upper ribs, another jab from her left lifted her large assailant up onto his tiptoes, and a final overhand strike that connected with her opponent's upper chest and forced him backwards.

Not giving him time to recuperate, Ruby once again stepped into his reach. This time rather than punching his chest, she performed an elbow strike that connected with the man's jaw, causing his head to snap to the side and him to stumble back disoriented. Her right hook was deflected when her opponent caught her wrist with a raised forearm and pushed her arm out wide.

Rather than try to fight against the motion, Ruby went with the momentum of the deflection and turned it into a spin, falling into a crouch as she did so. Coming about full-circle, Ruby felt her opponent's fist swing overhead, missing her by less than an inch, and slammed the outside of her fist against the side of her opponent's knee. Her strike buckled her opponent's leg making him drop to a kneel. Once again activating her Semblance, Ruby surged to her feet and drove her opponent face first into the mat with a well-placed elbow strike to his temple.

The redhead drove her knee into the spot directly between his shoulder blades, grabbed her opponent by the hair, pulled his head up by the hair exposing his throat and drew her-

"Match!" As soon as Helia called it, Ruby was on her feet again and extending her hand to Frost in order to help him to his.

Frost flipped over onto his back and grinned up at Ruby before clasping her forearm and getting his feet under him once again. "Well done, boss. I almost thought I had you for a second there." Frost said, a smile on his face the entire time.

Frost...well, Frost was Frost. Standing at just over 7' tall and weighing just under 350 lbs., Frost was a mountain of pure muscle. His head was covered in hair naturally blue-steel in colour and his dark gray eyes verged on black but they held a twinkle of life and joy rarely seen outside of the face of a child.

Ruby chuckled and took several long gulps of water from the bottle Helia handed her. The redhead then wiped her brow with a hand towel and slumped down on a bench, resting her back against the mirror behind her. The coolness of the metal provided relief to the hot and tired muscles of her back that were exposed by her sports bra. She smiled back at Frost, "Believe me, for a second there you almost did."

The 24 year old pumped his fist in the air in victory. "Yes! A little more work and I just might beat you."

"Yeah...I don't see that happening anytime soon, Big Man." Ruby stated, patting her shirtless, chocolate-skinned friend on the back only to make a disgusted face and wipe her hand on Helia's shirt when it came away covered in Frost's sweat.

Narrowing her eyes for a moment for what the redhead did, Helia spoke up, "Now that you two are finished with your little romp, can we get down to business? I've been awake for the past forty-hours and I'd like to get at least a little bit of sleep before I'm inevitably called upon once again to deal with whatever tragedy the most recent group of recruits gets themselves into."

Ruby's eyebrows shot up in surprise at her strawberry blonde friend, "Are they really that bad this time?"

"It's not that they're bad per se but they have a real knack for getting themselves in trouble. I mean for Dust's sake, we found out yesterday that one of them smuggled in and was raising an Ursa cub because, and I quote, 'It's just way too cute.'" Helia said, dragging a hand exhaustedly down her face and sighing.

"Wow. What'd you do with the cub?"

This time it was Helia who raised an eyebrow, but at Frost, before she spoke, "You'd have to ask Frost about that. He offered to take care of it for me and if his sheepish grin is anything to go by he meant that a little more literally than I initially thought he did."

Frost shrugged innocently and raised his hands beseechingly, "What? It's just way too cute."

Shaking her head, Ruby stood up with her bottle of water in one hand and her towel on her shoulder, and beckoned her two compatriots to follow along behind her as she left the gym and set off towards her suite of rooms in the base, "Come along, you two. I'll make us some food and we can talk business in my rooms."

And so off the three of them went through the base, which even at midnight was bustling with activity as people came and went. Some were just getting in from an assignment, some leaving on one, others just enjoying their time off but no matter who it was, everyone the three of them passed made sure to make room for what was arguably three of the most powerful and influential people in all of Vale.

Once the three of them had reached Ruby's rooms, Ruby started cooking while Helia sat upon one of the counters in the kitchen, swinging her legs back and forth, and Frost leaned back against the island in the kitchen. The three of them chatted amiably about nothing in particular while Ruby cooked and once she was finished, they each grabbed a plate of food. Frost and Helia both returned to their previous positions while Ruby sat cross-legged on another of the counters.

"Why exactly are we eating eggs and bacon at…" Helia glanced at the clock, "12:30 at night?"

Frost shrugged as he shoveled another forkful of food into his mouth, "Why not? Eggs and bacon can be eaten anytime, anywhere."

Ruby nodded and took a sip of her orange juice, "Precisely, Frost."

Helia shook her head, "The two of you are children."

Frost merely shrugged and continued eating his mountain of food while Ruby stuck her tongue out at the other woman.

After they each finished their food, they got down to business.

Ruby set her plate down on the counter beside her, the last one to finish and looked at her two subordinates. "First off, Frost anything to report on your end?"

While Helia served Ruby as her second-in-command - and Ruby as Junior's - her work was focused mainly outside of Vale. Frost was Ruby's third-in-command and focused on the day to day running of their troops inside of Vale and on protecting their territory in Vale and those who resided within it.

"No, boss. Sorry." He said, shaking his head and crossing his arms. "I've made sure everyone knows to keep their eyes peeled and ears open but there's been nothing. If this organization is as big as you're thinking it is then they're either steering clear of Vale entirely or they're extremely skilled at remaining inconspicuous about their activities here."

Ruby ran her fingers through her hair and sighed before she spoke again, "If I had to choose between the two I'd be more inclined between the latter but I don't really think either are the case. Going off of what I've been able to get off of Al-fris's scroll and what we already knew of his more recent activities, Al-fris was starting to get big into international human and drug trafficking. I think what this organization is doing is operating through local gangs, mobs, etcetera. What I want you to do is start having your people keep an eye out for anyone people or group of people who suddenly seem to have a lot more money than they previously have had or made."

Ruby waited for Frost to nod in affirmation before turning her attention to Helia. "You, got anything to report?"

Helia grinned for the first time that night. "Actually yes," She said. "In fact, before you and Frost roped me into refereeing your little sparring match, I was coming to tell you that we picked up someone we believe to be an agent of this shadow organization of yours."

"Where is he?"

"We currently have him being held in Interrogation Room 5. We've done a preliminary interrogation, but we haven't got anything out of him as of yet. I figured I'd come and let you know before we really started interrogating him."

"Does he know who we are or more precisely, is he aware of who's currently holding him prisoner?"

Helia shook her head, "No, he doesn't. From what he said so far, it actually seems as if he thinks he's been picked up by the Atlas Intelligence Agency for questioning and we didn't see the point in correcting him."

Ruby scratched her chin and stared off into the distance for a moment before jumping off the counter and clapping her hands together, "Alright. Here's what we're going to do. You two are going to get some sleep but before you do that, Helia, I want you to tell everyone to stay out of that room. I'm going to deal with this myself and we'll start by leaving him to stew in that room for the next couple of days. Don't let anyone come into contact with him. He's not to be fed. He's not to be given anything to drink. He's not to come into contact with anyone at all. As far as he's concerned for the next two days, the only things that exist are what's inside of that room, got it?"

Helia nodded.

"Good. Now you two take care of anything you need to see to tonight and then go to sleep. I'll be doing the same shortly."

Ruby saw her subordinates out the door and pressed her back to the door. A smile slowly spread across her face. "Whoever you are, I'm coming for you."

* * *

Two days later found Ruby entering Interrogation Room 5 at three in the morning, a _Sam's Sammiches_ bag in one hand, a handgun on one hip, and a small metal case in her other hand.

Ruby slammed the case down on the metal table beside the sleeping head of her captive and watched as he jumped awake in fright. Had it not been for his hands, which were handcuffed to the table, her brown-haired, brown-eyed prisoner likely would have toppled his chair and wound up sprawled on the ground.

The man blearily blinked at Ruby in groggy confusion.

Ruby beamed her widest smile at him, "Mornin' Sunshine." She held up the _Sam's Sammiches_ bag for him to see, "Brought you a little something. Figured you might be a bit peckish."

She tossed the bag onto the table, pulled out her chair, and plopped into it.

The prisoner tore into the sub he found within the bag and Ruby folded her arms and silently watched him.

After getting about halfway through the sub, he swallowed his current bite and stuck his hand out for Ruby to shake. "The name's Troy," He said.

Ruby smiled and shook his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Troy."

With the formalities out of the way, Troy turned his attention back to his food. "So what'd you guys pick me up for? It's not often one's held prisoner by the AIA. Also, just curious, but are you supposed to be the good cop to their bad cop?" He asked, speaking between bites. "You know, they leave me in here for who knows how long. The light's always on. Give me no food, no water, then along comes you. The Great Bearer of Sustenance that you are. Although you could have done one better and brought me something to drink."

"Sorry Troy, but you're actually wrong in at least two ways that I can think of off the top of my head. To begin with we're most definitely not cops or federal agents at all." Ruby stated in a distracted tone.

It took a moment to sink in, but once it did Troy's chewing slowed to a halt. He lifted his head to see Ruby slowly sliding bullets from a magazine and standing them up in a perfectly straight line, each one separated from its neighbors by an inch of empty tabletop. He blinked and started actually paying attention to what Ruby was saying.

"- you're actually in a base located roughly a mile beneath the city of Vale. No one has any idea of where you are. The second thing you're off about is the fact that in no way shape or form, if we actually were cops," Ruby slid the last and twelfth bullet from the magazine. When she set the empty clip next to the gun she'd pulled it from, she looked Troy in the eye. Her silver eyes were harder than the steel she made her weapons from. "I most definitely would _not_ be the good cop."

Troy slowly lowered his mostly finished sub to the table and sat back. He gestured to the bullets in front of his captor. "What are those?"

"Bullets. I figured that'd be obvious."

Troy remained silent for a moment until he realized Ruby had no intention to elaborate any further without prompting. "What are they for?"

Ruby sat forward in her chair, resting her forearms on the edge of the table and lifted one of the bullets to eye level. "They're for a small game we're going to be playing, you and I." She said offhandedly, her attention seeming absorbed in watching the play of the light on the metal as she slowly turned the bullet in her hand. "You see these are hollow-point rounds. In case you don't know, a normal Full-Metal Jacket bullet travels so quickly that often times it will go right through whatever or whoever you shoot. Hollow-points have a small pit in the tip of them that causes the head of the round to 'mushroom' once it hits something. This 'mushrooming' has a twofold effect on whatever it hits. First off, it increases the surface area of the bullet slowing it down and making it more likely to remain in whatever it hits. Secondly, it causes the bullet to cause a significantly greater amount of damage to the tissue of whoever is being shot."

The redhead sat back and, looking Troy dead in the eye, set the round in the exact same spot she'd picked it up from. "I have for you, twelve questions. You're going to answer them truthfully and to the best of your ability. For every question that I feel you have not done your best to answer honestly, I will put one of these bullets in the magazine and then, once we're done with our little talk, I will shoot you in one of twelve pre-ordained locations in an order that I've already decided on."

Troy sat back, clasping his hands on the table before him. "You won't do it." He said, fully confident in his statement. "You need me for something. You can't afford to kill me."

With a sigh, Ruby straightened up in her seat. "You know, one thing that makes me really tick is when people question my resolve."

Before Troy could even blink, Ruby's form blurred as she snatched the gun and empty magazine from the table, slipped the former into the later, turned off the safety, pointed the gun at him, and fired.

Troy froze in shock and fear, the urine he'd been holding for the past two days being released as he waited waited for the end that he was sure was coming. Only rather than feel an excruciating pain in his chest or abdomen as he'd expected, it was his ear where the pain radiated from. Lowering his head to his hands, Troy felt along his right ear. When his hand came away, he realized the thing running down the side of his face and neck was his blood. He looked back up at the girl - no, the _woman_ \- holding him prisoner.

Ruby ejected the clip from her handgun and placed both back on the table from where she got them.

Troy looked down at his hands - now covered in blood -, behind him to where the bullet had embedded itself in the wooden wall behind him, and back at Ruby. "You-you _shot me._ "

The redhead shrugged nonchalantly, "Yes, I did." She leaned forwards, clasping her hands on the table as she spoke, "I know you doubted me before but believe me when I say that I _didn't_ miss, and that that's the only round that was loaded in this gun that wasn't a hollow point. And to alleviate your concern about expiring early, don't worry about that, there are plenty of places I can shoot you that will cause excruciating pain and don't endanger your life. Also," She held up one finger and then undid the clasps on the case she'd up until this point neglected and opened it to reveal a Jet Injector and twelve vials of slightly glowing solution. "I made sure to bring these to ensure you didn't go into shock. We wouldn't want you to go into shock, would we?"

His eyes widening in fear and realization of just what and who he was dealing with, Troy watched as Ruby shifted slightly into a more comfortable position in her chair and smiled at him. "Now, Troy, shall we begin?"

* * *

With a hip-bump, the redhaired teen slammed the driver side door of her car, holding a Burrito Queen's bag in one hand and a strawberry shake in the other.

"You're doing what?" Junior asked, dumbfounded and staring at her over the roof of her car.

Pausing for a moment to phrase her response, Ruby took a sip of her strawberry shake before responding, "I'm taking a...vacation. That's the word I was looking for. I'm taking a vacation while I try to sort some things out. It won't be too long, I promise. Two months at most."

The two of them headed towards Ruby's apartment building walking side by side as they did so.

"Two months?! You don't just decide to take a two month vacation and not tell your family about it until the day before you decide to leave, Ruby!"

"What's your problem, Junior? I'm just gonna be gone for a bit. It's not like the world is gonna end in my absence." She took a long draw of her shake. "Besides it's about time that I get a break."

"About time that you get a break? You took like half a week off, not too long ago!"

"That was like two weeks ago and besides that was _two weeks_ ago. A girl can only go so long before she needs a break from…" She glanced over at him out of the corner of her eyes, "all of the testosterone that comes with dealing with you and Roman...or the lack thereof as is the case most of the time."

Junior made a face at her back as he responded, "Haha. You're a real comedian, Ruby."

Ruby grinned back at him over her shoulder as she unlocked her apartment door, "You love me nonetheless."

"That I do, Rubes. That I do." Junior responded, inclining his head in her direction and following along behind her into the apartment until she came to an abrupt stop and made him run into her back. "Ooph. What'd you stop for?"

Gesturing into the apartment, the redhead shook her head exasperatedly. "Why do I even bother with putting a lock on my door? Everyone just walks inside as they please anyways."

Junior looked past her and chuckled to himself as he spied Roman and Neo sitting on the couch, eating popcorn, and watching a movie.

The orange-haired mobster half-turned and looked at Ruby and waved cheerily with a handful of popcorn, "Hey there, Red! We got here a little bit ago and decided to get this Movie Night started early. Hope you don't mind."

"No. It's just fine, Roman. I mean, it's not like I lock my door for a reason." Ruby stepped in, set her keys on the dining room table and froze. She pointed at a giant inflatable duck sitting on a stack of books on a chair at the table. "What the heck is that thing?"

Roman looked back from the movie for a moment before returning to it. "Oh, that. That's Mr. Quackers. I found him on a shelf for sale in a Dust shop that I was liberating the Dust from and decided he was too irresistible not to take."  
The scythe-wielder looked from the monocle-wearing, mustache-adorned duck to Roman and back to the duck. "He's creepy is what he is. I think I'm going to have nightmares now."

"Oh, don't say that." Roman leaped up from his seat, placed the bowl of popcorn in the lap of a now very disgruntled multi-colored girl, and ran over to the duck, and picked it up, posing with it like he was a showgirl on _The Cost is Correct_. "I mean look at this adorable face. Doesn't it just make you wanna hug it and squeeze it until it pops from all the love you're pouring into it?"

Ruby shook her head and pulled off her jacket, setting it on the back of a dining room chair. "No, it makes me want to get a needle and pop it. That's what it makes me want to do."

Setting her scroll and food on the coffee table, Ruby jogged into the kitchen where she grabbed a small thing of ice cream and a spoon for Neo before taking her seat in the armchair.

Junior pulled out his taco and bit into as Ruby sat down. "What are we watching?" He, asked, a couple strands of lettuce hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Roman looked over from where he was trying to wrestle a spoon of ice cream from Neo, "Oh, Neo picked it out. It's some campy horror movie that came out recently, _The Forkening_ I think? It's about a crazy person who escapes from an insane asylum and goes around killing people with a fork she's convinced is possessed by the spirit of her dead son that's egging her on to do all of this to make up for his murder years ago."

The information broker set down his taco on the table and covered his mouth with his other hand as a wave of nausea swept through him after watching someone get disemboweled with a fork. "And I'm done eating now."

Roman threw a piece of popcorn at Junior bouncing it off the older man's forehead, "Stop being such a pansy."

"It's not my fault that I have a weak stomach!"

 _Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!_

Chuckling at the group's antics, Ruby snatched her vibrating scroll off of the coffee table and slipped into the kitchen for some quiet as she took the call. "Y'ello?"

The scroll showed Charlotte's grimacing face as she tried to ignore the nuzzling her girlfriend, Dodger, was giving her neck. "Heya Ruby! Ow!" Charlotte squeaked and jumped before slapping Dodger in the side of the head. "Bad Dodger! No biting while I'm on the scroll talking to Ruby! Anyway Ruby, Dodger just got back from her business trip and I don't think we'll be able to make Movie Night tonight. She's being very-OW! Stop with the biting for the moment, Dodger! I'm serious. As I was saying, Dodger is rather insistent we stay home tonight."

"That's fine, Charlotte. I didn't think you were going to be able to make it anyway."

"Thanks Ruby. Talk to you later."

"Uh-huh. And Dodge."

Dodger turned her head towards the scroll, "Yeah Ruby?"

"Give Charlotte a big ol' bite on her neck for me will ya? She never did give me that money she owes me from a couple of nights ago."

The eighteen year old watched Charlotte's brows furrow in confusion, "What money are you - OW!"

With a smile and a shake of her head, Ruby snapped her scroll shut and headed back out into the living room just in time to run into Roman and Junior. Each of them grabbed one of her arms, lifted her a few inches in the air and carried her back into the kitchen as Neo followed behind them.

They deposited the now confused teen in front of her fridge and stepped back giving her some breathing room. Meanwhile Neo stepped forward in between the two men and they all folded their arms simultaneously as they silently stared at her.

Ruby looked between the three of them. "Alright, what's this? The last time the three of you ganged up on me like this was when I was going through that whole obsessed-with-Achieve-Men phase and you had that intervention to remind me there was more music in the world than them, so what's up?"

The three were silent for a moment longer before Roman spoke up, "Junior told us that you were planning on leaving for a bit."  
"Yeeeesss." Ruby said hesitantly. "There's some things that I need to look into. What does that have to do with anything?"

The next to speak was Junior, "We want you to promise us something."

Ruby glanced at Neo as if expecting her to say the next thing, only for the multi-colored girl to jerk her thumb towards Roman.

"We want you to promise you that you'll come back to us alive. No matter what." Roman said when the redhaired teen looked at him.

"Because as dysfunctional as we are sometimes…" Junior trailed off and Roman picked it up again.

"...we're still family."

Grinning, Ruby opened her arms and hugged three of the most important people in her life as they all stepped forward into a group hug and for a moment they were all silent and happy to remain that way for the time being.

"What the fuck, Neo?! Did you just stab me with a spoon?!"

At least for a little while they were happy to remain quiet.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** **Fuck depression, fuck this chapter, fuck my inability to be happy with my own writing, fuck school, fuck work, fuck everything except for you guys because you guys are fucking awesome. Seriously, you guys are the only reason I'm still working on this thing and it's not just another one of the many things I've started writing, let gather dust on my computer for a bit, and then deleted so no one would ever find it.**

 **Three months. That's how long it's been since my last update. Three goddamn months. I'm sorry, guys. For those of you who read** _ **A Snowy Promise**_ **and my promise to have a chapter out the next day, I'm doubly sorry. After getting reviews on last chapter, I looked back and quite frankly, I realized that the chapter didn't really come out the way I wanted it to. So I started this chapter about half a week after posting the last and I got most of the way through it and was going through it so I didn't have a repeat of the last chapter and...I deleted it because I wasn't pleased with the way it came out. I then proceeded to do this eleven more times in the following three months. That's right, this version is the thirteenth version of this chapter. I've written more versions of this chapter than I have published chapters of this story at the time I'm writing this. I have so many documents for this chapter spread out in both my Google Drive and my computer that my folder for this chapter has separate folders within it for each version of it since when I work on something over a period of time and not just one sitting, I usually break it up into parts and then create a compiled document of it all when I'm finished. That's just digital versions, that's completely ignoring the various spiralbound notebooks and composition notebooks I have spread around my room from where I couldn't access a computer and just started writing in them and then typed them up at a later date. I'm pretty sure that I've written more for this chapter than I have for the rest of the story combined so far. BUT! I finally got the chapter to a spot that I'm halfway pleased with. There was actually more that I wanted to touch on this chapter, but I promised someone that I'd have the chapter published on Sunday and I intend on keeping said promise.**

 **I normally go through and respond to reviews here as well as in PM but I think I've waited long enough to get the next chapter out and don't want to take too much more time. I think I've responded to every review I could by PM but if I missed you, I promise it wasn't because I hate you, it was seriously just an accident on my part.**

 **Thanks to everyone who followed and favorited after last chapter. Thanks to SentenRainen, SirRealism, Maelstrom of the Nine, tierboook, Fencer22, Shadow41425, and Chargone for reviewing (reviewers will be pleased to know that I finally managed to successfully fix the math in Chapter 5 for the payment, it only took me three or four attempts to do so).**

 **I guess this is it until next chapter guys unless you're like Senten and completely insane and decide to do a reread of it. Au revoir.**

 **P.S.: Mika, if you're still reading and the reason you didn't review was because of me telling you to make an account, I only said that in jest. I do greatly enjoy getting reviews from all of you and don't care if it's a guest review or a member review.**

 **P.P.S.: I made a note of myself to ask and still almost forgot to do so, how the hell are you new guys still finding this shit? I know for a fact that this story isn't anywhere near the first page of any sorting method that currently has, and it's been three fucking months since I last updated so how are you guys still finding this thing? I mean there's been an average of like 20 views a day with it not being uncommon to reach 30 or 40 for the past month or so and there was a large influx of follows and favorites at the end of January and you guys have seriously got me flummoxed here. Um...shit this A/N got a bit longer than I planned on it being...sorry.**

 **P.P.P.S. This would have gone out four hours ago had someone I know not decided to change the router password and blocked me from the internet between 12 and 4. Now I'm gonna go and plan a subtle but very aggressive technological and psychological campaign of war on my brother.**


	11. Chapter 9

Ruby slipped her laptop into its bag and zipped up the bag. Letting the bag fall back onto the bed with her duffel bag, her eyes drifted around the room making sure she hadn't forgotten anything when they fell upon the scroll Ozpin had given her after the mission with Qrow and Blake.

She walked over and picked it up, turning it over in her hands. If Ruby was to be completely honest with herself, she'd not given the thing another thought since she'd placed it on her dresser with the rationale that if Qrow was reporting on her then Ozpin already knew where she lived.

It wasn't that she was scared of what she might find on it, rather she just didn't want to deal with the emotions and memories that would undoubtedly be raised if she were to read the reports found on the scroll. With the way things had ended between them, all of her memories with Qrow were a big twisted ball of bittersweet confusion. On the one hand, the years she'd spent training with her former mentor had been some of the best of her life. On the other hand, she couldn't look back at those times without at least a little bit of cynicism. Had she known the real Qrow? Was their entire relationship just manipulation on the older man's behalf so as to gain him and Ozpin a huntress?

Her finger hovered over the power button, some dark part of her wanting to read the reports. To see herself the way Qrow had seen her. To-

 _Thump. Thump. Thump._

Ruby jumped in surprise, shocked from her thoughts by the sound of Frost knocking on the doorframe of her room. She fumbled trying to catch the scroll that had slipped from her hands when she was startled. Grabbing it, just inches from the floor, Ruby straightened up to her full height and set it back in it's place on the dresser.

Frost raised his eyebrows in surprise, not use to seeing the younger woman this...out of it. He stepped into the room, one hand gripping the doorjamb, and his body half-turned towards her. "You okay, boss?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm fine." She replied hesitantly, a hand running through her hair and a fake smile evident on her face.

Ever himself and with full confidence in the redhead, rather than pressure her, Frost took her at her word, and his face lit up with a grin, "Great! If you're ready then let's get going, we have just enough time to stop and get some pancakes from the _Pancake Shack_ , before you need to be at the airport."

Ruby chuckled, making sure to grab her duffle bag and laptop bag as she followed him out. "Didn't you eat like half an hour ago? You normally eat dinner at 5:30."

"Eh," Frost replied with a shrug, "I'm a big man, I need a lot of food. You know that."

Feeling her somber mood lift the more she spoke to her bottomless pit of a friend, Ruby locked the door to her apartment and pat him on the back. "That I do, my friend. That. I. Do."

After getting a quick bite to eat at the local _Pancake Shack_ , the two were on their way again and fifteen minutes later were pulling into the airport. Frost came to a stop at the drop off zone of the airport and turned to his passenger, "I guess this is it for now. I know what your answer is likely to be, but are you sure that you can't tell me where you're going, boss?"

Ruby shook her head and started gathering up her bags as she answered, "It's too big of a risk. The less people who know the less chance there is of it getting out. Remember Valerie?"

His eyes dimmed noticeably from the reminder, Frost glumly nodded, "Yeah...yeah, I remember Valerie."

Valerie, or Operation Valerie as it was more formally dubbed, had been a colossal failure and just the mention of the event was enough to dampen the spirits of anyone who'd been around at the time. Now it served as an eternal reminder to everyone then and to those who would come in the future as to just how quickly things could go wrong and just how wrong they could get.

Taken as a favor in an attempt to gain political credit with an ambassador from Mistral, Operation Valerie was named after the daughter of the ambassador, whom Junior had promised to protect. Everything went swimmingly during the entire operation until the last day when one of their agents not involved in the operation was tricked by an enemy agent with an Illusion Semblance into giving up the location of the safehouse Valerie was being kept in. That night, with only hours to go before the operation was to end, the safehouse was raided resulting in the deaths of twenty agents, Valerie, and the needful assassination of a Mistralian official before he could out Junior's organization or cause any future problems for it. Following Valerie, there was a huge change in protocol and the way things were done. One such protocol was the restriction of information solely to those who absolutely needed to know for the mission they were involved in.

His down mood quickly passing, Frost smiled at Ruby, "In that case, take care, and make sure to bring me back something to eat, 'kay?"

"I will, ya big lug, and make sure to take care of Helia for me while I'm gone. You know she's liable to work herself to death if someone doesn't watch her." Ruby said before closing her car door. She watched as Frost gave her a mock two-fingered salute before driving off and leaving her alone on the sidewalk outside of the Vale airport.

With a sigh, Ruby turned and headed towards the doors of the airport. Having arrived four and a half hours early to make it harder for anyone to guess what plane she was boarding, she found herself a seat, put her headphones in and soon was drifting off to sleep.

 ***DtRH***

 _ **The day before and only two hours before Movie Night**_

 _Ruby sunk into her chair at the head of the table, spun, and slapped her hands down on the table to stop her rotation._ _"Alright!...what...exactly am I looking at?"_

 _Giving her a brief glance to show he was listening, Frost quickly turned his attention back to his hands, one of whom was pinning the other to the table beneath it and about to impale it with a pencil._

 _Helia lifted her head from where it was resting in her hands, exasperation written across her face. She flippantly waved her hand in Frost's general direction before sighing and responding, "Apparently it's, and I quote 'Free-for-All Hand Wrestling Night' at our local conference table."_

 _Ruby stared at where Frost's hands were most definitely trying to murder one another, "I-um, so I could be wrong, but Frost," Frost raised his eyebrows and grunted in what Ruby could only assume was meant to be a questioning manner, "I don't think opponents are supposed to try to murder one another in a wrestling tournament."_

 _Frost tried to dismiss her concerns but with his hands currently occupied all he could really do was jerk his head in her general direction while his right hand attempted to strangle his left hand, "Don't worry. This is an underground tournament. Hah!" Frost abandoned his attempts to kill one hand with the other and instead smacked the table. "I'm a genius." He looked at the two women in the room clearly expecting them to get what he was referring to, and becoming crestfallen when neither did. "Get it? It's an underground tournament? We're...in a base...underground…Oh nevermind!"_

 _Shaking her head, Ruby cleared her mind and prepared for the fight she was inevitably going to have on her hands following what she was about to reveal. "I have a name."_

 _Frost and Helia nodded their heads and just stared at her in silence waiting for her to finish. Helia was the one who broke the silence upon realizing Ruby had no intention of continuing. "Oookay...what is it?"_

 _Ruby drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out through clenched teeth, trying to decide on the most tactful way to proceed. "Well...that's the thing...you see...I can't really tell you that."_

 _The redhead watched as realization slowly crept across Helia's face and Frost glanced back and forth between the two of them, being purposely dense so he didn't have to admit the truth of the matter to himself._

" _And why can't you tell us? It's kind of hard for us to know how to proceed with our jobs if we don't know what we're working with." Helia forced out, her jaw clenched._

" _I'm taking care of this persona-" Ruby was quickly drowned out by the other two._

 _Frost shot up out of his chair causing the poor thing to fly back and slam into the wall behind him as he did so, "Whoa there, boss! That is a no can do! We-"_

 _Meanwhile Helia had slammed her fist against the table as she started shouting that she'd be damned if she'd allow Ruby to needlessly endanger herself by going and gallivanting off when she had brought the two of them on to handle things like this._

 _Ruby sat in her seat, taking it all in for a moment, still not sure which would be the most sensible way to deal with this before shrugging and deciding that sense could go chew on a candlestick for all she cared. Calmly standing up, Ruby straightened the suit jacket she was wearing and the cuffs of said jacket before looking up at her two friends._

" _ENOUGH!" She shouted, instantly quieting her two subordinates. She crooked a finger downwards. "Sit. Now."_

 _Both Helia and Frost hurriedly sought to comply, recognizing that by no means was Ruby asking them to do so, but threatening them and that if they didn't comply then things were to get really ugly, really quick._

 _Her hands splayed on the conference table before her, Ruby slowly returned to her seat. She looked from one subordinate to the other, making sure she had their full attention. "Now, since the two of you have decided that you can't talk about things like adults, I'm going to tell you how things are going to be. You're going to do_ exactly _as I tell you to and then we'll proceed from there. Do you understand me?"_

 _Knowing they were on extremely thin ice as it was, Frost and Helia both just silently nodded and kept their eyes trained on Ruby._

" _The two of you are to go about your jobs like you normally do. If in the next two months I don't return then Helia is to step up and take charge in my stead. You are in no uncertain terms to try and find me either in the next two months or if I don't return after the two months are up. You are to assume I am dead and continue on under that assumption, do you understand?"_

 _The two of them hesitated a second, but discipline quickly kicked in, and Frost nodded his acceptance of the orders he'd been given followed a second later by Helia._

" _Good. Frost you're to pick me up at my apartment on the intersection of Oakley and Figgins at six tomorrow evening. From there you're to drop me off at the airport and return here where I'll have left further instructions for you both." Ruby stood and looked at her two friends, who knew better than to leave their seats until told to or until Ruby had left the room when the redhead was like this. "Frost, I'll see you tomorrow when you pick me up. After that I'll see the two of you in two months time, hopefully with some idea of what or who it is we're dealing with." With her piece finished, Ruby about-faced and left the conference room._

 ***DtRH***

It was with great reluctance that Ruby emerged from the cool shelter of the airport into the dry heat of the city of Oasis in the blazing desert kingdom better known as Vacuo.

When one spoke of Vacuo, one had to make sure to specify just _which_ Vacuo one was speaking of. There was of course the kingdom of Vacuo, but long before the four major kingdoms that currently existed had been established, there had been the desert known by those who dwelled within it as Vacuo.

Vacuo, the desert, wasn't really something one could get a sense of the vastness of by looking at a map. That was due in part because the great sea of dunes covered almost ten times the landmass as the kingdom of Vale - there was a reason no matter where you bought map which showed Vacuo on it there was always an asterisk somewhere on it that said, " **Warning:** **Not All Things May Be Drawn To Scale** " or some other variation thereof.

The size of the desert also couldn't be gleaned from a map because a large part of the desert had in fact never been seen by human eyes in all of recorded history, although it should be noted that the cause of that was definitely not for a lack of curious explorers, ambitious cartographers, or government funded expeditions. The timeless tracts of sand were home to some of the most deadly animals and Grimm to walk the face of Remnant. As if that wasn't bad enough, the climate itself seemed to have a desire of its own to eliminate anyone fool enough to attempt to delve into the secrets found within the barren desert. During the day, it wasn't uncommon for the temperature to reach in excess of a hundred degrees, only to drop below negative thirty later that same night. Needless to say, no one ever randomly decided to take a quick walk outside of the bounds of a city in Vacuo unless they were stupid, ignorant, incredibly skilled or a mixture of the three...more often than not though they were the first one.

Despite all of the difficulties that come with living in a place as inhospitable as the Vacuo Desert, Vacuo remained a thriving and wealthy nation that routinely supplied more and better trained Hunters- and Huntresses-to-be to academies like Beacon each year than any one other nation. On the flip side of that coin though was the fact that they also had some of the most highly-trained law enforcement officers in all of Remnant meaning the criminals that made Vacuo, and in this particular case Oasis, home had to be on the same level.

Ruby allowed her eyes to drift across the surrounding sea of metal and glass that made up the towering skyscrapers of Oasis while she went back over what she knew of the situation. Troy had told her that he didn't know where it was but supposedly there was a major base operating either out of or somewhere near the city of Oasis. So thirty-two hours after leaving Vale, four disguises, and six false destinations later, here she was.

With no contacts in the city, and only the things she had in her duffelbag and laptop bag, Ruby had to somehow become integrate herself with the rest of Oasis''s underworld while at the same time put herself in a position to get the lay of the land. Normally she'd do that by getting a job at a bar, but if this organization was even half as competent as Ruby currently believed they were then they'd make sure the only places their people frequented were those where they had influence and could keep tabs on who and what might be overheard.

Ruby shook her head in an attempt to clear it of the hundreds of miniature trains of thought currently plaguing her. She was getting ahead of herself, there was no point in worrying about any of that until she managed to acquire herself a place of residence for her stay here in Oasis.

 _One problem at a time, Ruby._ She mentally chided herself. _We'll cross those bridges when we come to them._

Her head now clear, and her focus restored, Ruby had just turned and started down the sidewalk of the airport when she felt a rather warm and shapely body smoothly wrap itself around her left arm and press itself to her side as if it belonged there meanwhile the smell of cinnamon and cloves washed over her. Ruby glanced down at the top raven-haired head now resting upon her shoulder as the two of them continued down the sidewalk. "Cinder."

"Ruby."

"Might I inquire as to what I did to earn the pleasure of your company?"

Cinder threw her head back, releasing a deep-bellied laugh that managed to come off as both sultry and genuine. "Ruby, my dear, what is with the sudden formality? I thought we were friends? If anything shouldn't _I_ be the one asking _you_ what brings you to my humble city?" Cinder queried, looking up into the redhead's face, fully trusting Ruby to guide the two of them safely down the sidewalk, a hint of a playful smirk drawing up the corner of her mouth.

"I would ask for your forgiveness, but being ambushed as soon as I leave the airport in a city I had every intention of remaining undetected in, makes me a bit wary and has a tendency to put me on edge, and honestly I wouldn't mean it even if I did." Ruby bit out tersely, scanning the street before her for anymore possible surprises. "It kinda comes with my occupation. You understand, I'm sure."

"Oh?" Cinder raised an eyebrow, "And here I was thinking you were nothing more than a chauffeur on holiday. What are you doing, Ruby, that requires you to enter Oasis undetected?"

"Cinder," Ruby growled, "I'm truly not in the mood for games, and really don't need to deal with this at the moment."

"Shush you," Cinder said, sliding her hands down from Ruby's elbow to lace her fingers through the redhead's, and clasp the younger woman's hand between both of her own as she returned her head to its former resting place on Ruby's shoulder. "There's no need to worry. I just got back from a business trip to Haven and recognized you. Now, I've answered your question. Are you going to answer mine?"

"No, I'm not. Especially not when you're acting like _this_ ," Ruby snapped back, making sure to pointedly stare at their clasped hands. "And not until you tell me how you recognized me considering I'm currently disguised and have switched guises several times since leaving Vale."

"Acting like what?"

Ruby glared at Cinder, "You know how you're acting. You are usually nowhere near this touchy-feely or nice, and coupled with the fact that you still have yet to tell me how you managed to recognize me, I'm currently ready to shoot first and ask questions later."

The older woman sighed, let go of Ruby, and put some space between them. There was an immediate change in the atmosphere between the two. Suddenly rather than being uncomfortably intimate, things were the way they normally were between the two, meaning a comfortable air between two people who held a healthy respect for one another. "Better?"

Watching Cinder from the corner of her eye, the redhead gave a curt nod of her head, her shoulder and back muscles relaxing as some of the tension in her was released. "A little bit. Now, how did you know it was me?" she asked.

Cinder shrugged, "It was the way you held yourself when you stopped outside the airport. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Uh-huh. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to see about finding a place to stay while I'm here in Vacuo."

"You don't have anywhere to stay?" Cinder asked, one eyebrow raised. "You could just stay with me. Unless that might cause problems for you? Then again, what kind of problems would staying with a friend possibly cause a chauffeur on holiday?"

Ruby furrowed her brows, her mind racing in an attempt to find a way out of Cinder's proposition without raising any more suspicion on the other woman's part. If she stayed with Cinder, Ruby wouldn't be able to sneak her way into the crime scene here in Vacuo because if anyone saw the two together they would automatically assume the two were working with one another and the redhead's cover would be blown. On the other hand, Ruby could use Cinder as a way to start making contacts here in Vacuo and give her a way to both seamlessly merge into Vacuo's underworld and be able to hear things she otherwise wouldn't. Unable to come up with a sufficient reason to decline and plenty of reason to accept, the redhead sighed and the older woman up on the offer.

 ***DtRH***

The elevator doors parted with a cheery _Bing!_ to reveal what Ruby could only describe as the physical manifestation of every playboy's dream penthouse. The floors were all made of Mahogany wood. A drink bar took up half the wall to Ruby's left, a fireplace was the centerpiece of the wall to her right with an abstract painting hung over it's mantel, and a floor-to-ceiling window took up the entirety of the wall opposite of the elevator. The furniture was sleek, all black, looked as if all of it had been pulled from the latest catalogue, and centered around a television in the corner that Ruby was convinced was at least as horizontally wide as she was tall...okay she might be exaggerating there, but it was _big_.

Ruby set her bags down just outside of the doors of the elevator and meandered across the room to the window, her eyes drifting over the contents of the apartment. Despite the luxury of it all, the entire apartment was devoid of anything personal linking it to Cinder. In fact, there was a sterility and stillness to the apartment that almost made it feel like she was in a hospital or the cleanest mausoleum ever built.

"Wow!" Ruby exclaimed upon coming to a stop at the window and seeing the view it afforded of the surrounding landscape. "Now, _that's_ what I call a view."

Oasis was named such because the entire city was built around a lake 306 miles at its longest and almost 120 miles at the lake's widest, that just happened to be the only reliable source of water for at least 200 miles in every direction.

The city itself started off as a collection of smaller towns, hamlets and villages. As time passed, those towns, hamlets, and villages grew until smaller ones were swallowed up and assimilated into larger ones. Eventually all of those pre-Oasis settlements had grown so much that they formed one giant metropolis. Now the only signs of those days long past were the names of Oasis's districts which were all named after whatever town or city had been there at the time of their merging with the megacity.

Cinder came to a stop beside her, and joined her in looking out upon the city and lake sprawled before them. The two of them stood there in the complete silence of the apartment for a few moments, Ruby unwilling to break the peace of it, Cinder...well, to be truthful, Ruby had no idea why Cinder was remaining quiet.

When one of them finally broke the silence, it was Cinder who spoke first, "That lake is the sole reason for the survival of this city which makes it all the more amusing that there's so much we don't know about it. The largest question of all-" Cinder remarked, her voice laced with a kind of peace, Ruby had never heard from her before. It was almost like the older woman had been hypnotized by the tranquility of the scene.

"-where does the water come from for the lake?" Ruby finished, her eyes still fixated on the concrete-jungle. "There's no rivers, either visible or underground, to replenish it, and this place doesn't get anywhere near enough consistent rain to keep the lake full, so where does it all come from?"

"No one knows," Cinder shrugged, the movement of her shoulders seeming to break the spell on the two of them. "This lake, the very lifeblood of the capital of this nation, is just as mysterious to us as the Grimm are."

Turning back to the rest of the apartment, Ruby once again studied the place she would be inhabiting for the next few weeks to come. "You know if this is the kind of place you're used to staying in then your stay at my apartment must have been unpleasant."

"I'll admit, at first, the accommodations were somewhat lacking, but by the end of my two weeks there, it had kind of grown on me. It was...cozy," Cinder commented, striding across the room towards a door to the right of the elevator when facing it. "Although a good straightening up on occasion might do it some good. Come on, I'll show you to your room, before we leave."

Ruby quickly scurried over to the elevator, and grabbed her things. She then slipped through the door Cinder had disappeared behind, and found herself in a hallway with two doors on her right, a third to her left, and another at the end of the hall ahead of her before the hall turned off to the left. "What do you mean 'we leave'?" Ruby asked as she caught up to the amber-eyed beauty.

"Did you think I was going to let you stay here for free? No, I'm going to ensure I get my worth out of you." Cinder told her, as the older woman opened the door to the left, and stepped into the room. "The bathroom's through that door. There's a walk-in-closet through that one. There should be clean sheets, blankets, and pillows on a shelf in there," She said, making sure to point to everything as she mentioned it.

Setting her bag on the queen-sized bed, Ruby started pulling out the things she thought she might need. "So where are we going? What are we doing? I need to know these things if I'm to properly prepare." Ruby glanced up at Cinder as she spoke, finding the older woman resting a hip on the edge of the vanity table just inside the door with her arms crossed as she watched Ruby.

Cinder straightened up, and sauntered over to Ruby's side as the redhead continued pulling things out, and laying them on the bed. "On my flight back, my employer asked that I stop in and talk with a dear friend of ours."

"Uh-huh," Ruby's voice was laden with disbelief at the concept of the person being their friend. "And what precisely did this 'friend' do to garner the displeasure of you and your 'employer'?"

"Nothing in particular," Cinder answered offhandedly. "I just detest the man on principle." She reached out a hand as if to pick up Crescent Rose, only for Ruby to lightly slap her hand away.

"You 'detest him on principle'? What does that even mean?" Ruby asked, ignoring the slight glare being sent her way by Cinder.

Seeing the younger woman had no intention of cowing beneath her glower, Cinder returned to her former place by the vanity table. "Go ahead and bring anything you think you might need. I have no intentions of this developing into a fight, it truly is just a meeting between associates."

Ruby glanced up at Cinder in exasperation, "You're a lot of help, you know that? You're almost as much help as Junior, which, for your information, is no help at all. Now shoo. If I am to be accompanying you then I need to get ready which means I need to get changed. And though I'd like to think we're friends, we do not know each other well enough to get naked before one another."

"Aw, am I not pretty enough for you, Ruby?" Cinder purred over her shoulder at Ruby in a show of uncharacteristic playfulness as the redhead pushed her out of the room.

"Begone yee foul temptress before I need smite thee!" Ruby bellowed, in a poor imitation of a stereotypical, old, wizened wizard, before slamming her door in Cinder's rather perplexed face.

 ***DtRH***

When Ruby finally emerged back into the main area, it was to find Cinder sitting on the couch, head bowed in thought and the fingers of her right hand tapping on her crossed-legs. Ruby drew up beside the couch and held out her arms, "Well? How do I look?"

"Hmm?" Cinder raised her head and blinked her eyes in order to refocus them before fixing on Ruby. Her dazed expression quickly faded in one of pure incredulity as she took in Ruby in all her purposely hideous glory. "What in the name of Dust are you wearing?"

Ruby grinned as she blew and popped a bubble with the gum she was chewing before sticking her hand out for Cinder to shake. "The name's Jasper. Jasper Hayes," She said in a voice that was pitched to sound like a character from one of the movies that Ruby had forced Cinder to watch when the raven-haired woman was staying with her.

 _My voice is going to be destroyed by the time we're done with this._

Ruby's philosophy for her particular outfit this time lay in two key objectives. 1)Make it so eye-drawing and stand out so much that people couldn't help but look at it, and 2) make it so ugly and downright outrageous that it pained the eyes and the mind to behold it so people couldn't help but to consciously force their eyes away from the metaphorical elephant in the room. Sometimes there was a kind of anonymity that was afforded to you when you stood out in a room more than a full-grown, tap-dancing, tie-dyed Ursa Major in the nursery of a hospital.

Ruby's outfit consisted of a baggy, reflective, silver track-suit that looked like it was made of aluminum foil and had navy blue stripes running down the arms and legs. Her half-zipped up jacket revealed a loosely fitted t-shirt of the same colours as the stripes on her jacket and pants. Her shoes were a pair of blindingly bright combat boots that went up to mid-calf and had the bottoms of her pants tucked in them. The left one was neon orange while the right was a highlighter yellow. Rather than the sky blue waist-length wig she had had on, her hair was spiked up with one-half sprayed a hot pink and the other half a lime green. Her brown contacts had been replaced with ones that gave her eyes the appearance of a colour wheel that went well with the brightly coloured collar she was wearing of the same appearance. Ruby had even bound her chest in order to make herself appear flatter than she really was. All in all she looked like some horrible epitomization of the spirit of the, thankfully, briefly-lived Disco era that followed the Faunus Rights Movement.

Cinder looked Ruby up and down once more before refocusing on her rainbow-coloured eyes, purposely ignoring the proffered hand. Her voice when next she spoke would, had it been anyone other than Ruby, brooked no argument and likely would have sent her target fleeing with their tail between their legs, "You're not accompanying me in that...atrocious costume."

"Ah! But there you are mistaken, my dear Miss Fall. You see, I will indeed be accompanying you in what you so delicately called an 'atrocious costume'."

"No, you won't."

"Yes, I will."

"No, yo-" Cinder cut herself off, and closed her eyes. Ruby could almost see the numbers tick off in the older woman's head as she counted to ten in an attempt to calm herself down. "I'm not going to get into a childish argument with you. You won't be wearing that getup, that's final. Now go change into something a little more respectable, so we can go." Cinder finally managed to grind out through her teeth once she opened her eyes again.

Ruby's friendly demeanor dropped in the blink of an eye as she adopted a decidedly more confident and authoritative stance. "Miss Fall, it would appear that you are operating under a _rather grave_ misunderstanding. I, in no way, shape, or form, am beholden to acquiesce to your request. I am here _purely_ due to the fact that _you asked me_ to stay with you. While it would be slightly inconvenient, I would have no problems taking my things and immediately leaving should you overstep your bounds as hostess. I am helping you with this meeting and staying here because I _chose_ to do so of my own free will. You did not hire my services and even if you had, you are more than aware that I demand more respect than you are currently affording me. You would do well to remember that. I _do not_ respond well to having others attempt to dictate my life to me."

Ruby wasn't a fool, she knew this was an almost exact repeat of the instance in the car when the redhead had first picked Cinder up in Vale. She was also aware that if she continued contact with the older woman more of these moments were bound to pop up every now and then. Cinder was used to being in control. In fact she was a complete and utter control freak that loathed being argued with and was of the belief that she knew what was best. But Ruby also knew that she could work around that because in the long run, Cinder could be both a valuable asset and a good friend. She would just need to remind Cinder occasionally that she wasn't some meek pet who would do whatever Cinder wanted just for a simple belly-rub.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Cinder drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. When next she looked up at Ruby it was with acceptance. "Fine. Shall we go?"

Seeing that the raven-haired woman had come around, Ruby nodded, her confrontational stance quickly dropping and being replaced with her normal friendly demeanor. "Good, and, yes, we can get going now." With that said, the redhead about-faced and strode over to the elevator and pressed the button to summon it from the ground-floor. As soon as the doors opened, she marched in and went to press the button only to find Cinder in the same place she'd left her. "Come on, what are you waiting for? It's not like I have any idea where we're headed to."

 ***DtRH***

 **A/N:** **Annnd I'm back, even if it did take another three months. I'm proud, and glad, to announce that I am officially finished with high school. Meaning that I should be able to once again return to a more stable and regular posting schedule. This combined with the fact that I'm now on two medications, one for depression (turns out I've been suffering from depression since I was six or seven, almost twice as long as I thought I was) and one for anxiety, should lead to more frequent updates. On the flip side, said updates are likely to be once every other week since in order to allow myself to work on something other than DtRH so I don't get burned out, I plan on starting a new story under a new account and a different fandom pretty soon. Anyone curious feel free to ask me and I'll let you know when I start posting it.**

 **Now onto a few things I feel the need to discuss.**

 **1) I meant to bring this up before now but kept forgetting to and was reminded when going over a conversation I had with xplsov, this story is going to get** _ **much,** **much** **,** **MUCH**_ **darker in the future. There will be character deaths, both canon characters and OCs. There will be parts involving torture and much worse things. I've tried hinting at it throughout the story so far, but this is** _ **not**_ **going to always be as cheery or light-hearted as it currently is and I have no intention of shying away from anything. As far as my philosophy goes when writing, nothing is off the table (other than lemons and that's for the fact that I neither currently see any need for them in any story I might write nor do I believe I could adequately write one, but that's not to say I don't enjoy a good lemon as much as the next fellow) so long as it furthers the story I'm trying to write. I made this story M for a reason and that's so I have to worry about as little as I possibly can regarding limits on my story.**

 **2) The topic of OCs. I'll be frank with you, I have no interest in reading or writing a story that focuses on OCs. They just aren't my cup of tea. If you like them that's fine, but I don't. Despite that I'm sad to admit that there will be OCs in this story, and for several reasons. The main one though is the fact that OCs are needed in order for me to tell the tale I'm trying to tell. Ruby works with Junior in an organization that spans all of Remnant, and DtRH is also going to span** _ **all of Remnant.**_ **Ruby has a past full of people and helps Junior run a massive operation. Frost and Helia are needed because Ruby likes to take a hands on approach with things. She needs people she can trust to run things if and when she's not there or able to. Having said all of that, my OCs are only going to be put in in places where they're absolutely needed and each one I create I will try to make as unique as possible. Every time I make one I come up with backgrounds, beliefs, motivations, goals, etc. And as time goes on, and the story progresses we'll start to see more and more of the cast from the show, but right now each and every one of them has their own place and things they're doing. This story will wind up being massive. It took me 60,000 words to get past what I consider Arc 1 or the introductory Arc. And like xplsov said in another conversation he and I had this is Ruby's story. At no point will this story or any of my stories** _ **ever**_ **feature OCs 'hat I assure you. I might have a Interlude or two to give you a bit more insight on specific characters and events going on, but the story will always be about Ruby. It's about her growing up. It's about her changing. And it's about the difficulties she's going to face in the future because rest assured, I intend on breaking her, building her back up, only to break her and build her up again. This story is Ruby's. It's not Frost or Helia's. It's not Qrow's or Ozpin's. It's not even about Weiss, Yang, or Blake. It's about Ruby, and from now until forever will remain that way. That I swear to you, but at the same time there's so much going on both before and behind the scenes of DtRH that as much as I may not like them, OCs are necessary but I have no intention of ever letting them take over this story. If you feel the need to stop reading because of that I fully understand and I hope you have a happy and fulfilling life and who knows I might very well see you in the future in a story with less OCs, but there is just so much that the canon cast isn't enough because they all already have their own places in the story. But enough of that because it's kinda making me sad.**

 **3) I still somehow managed to have fucked up the math of Blake and Ruby** **'s payment in Chapter Five last time I fixed it. I** **'m half convinced my profile is haunted by a poltergeist that keeps changing it to mess with me. It should be fixed as of me posting this chapter.**

 **Reviews:**

 **NothingExistence:...don't really have much to say to just 'Hooray' so... Huzzah! (For those curious me and Nothing did indeed have a rather nice discussion via PMs following his review).**

 **Xplsov: Kinda already covered everything here above. Anything I didn't cover, is for the explicit purpose of not wanting to spoil anything.**

 **Shadow41425: I** **'m glad you enjoyed it, and different continent (not landmass, continent) big enough setting change? Not intended dickishly, but rather cheekily, I'm a dick by nature but I try to keep it in check and I'm sorry if that came off wrong. Also thoughts on the grammar/flow of this chapter?**

 **Blackwing - Balmung the Eclipse: No, you're awesome! Sidenote: I have no idea what a Balmung is but it somehow manages to sound like an insult and something really neat at the same time, also first reviewer whose name Google Drive doesn't try to tell me is incorrect meaning somehow Balmung is a completely real word. Who woulda thought?**

 **Fencer22: I'm also glad it's back (again). And the gaps between chapters bothers me because it feels wrong to do to you guys, not to mention it annoys the crap out of me since I know how I feel when it takes forever for a story to update and I feel even worse since not once have any of you ever hounded me about updates.**

 **Jiggly Joe: Yeah, walls of text are an issue of mine. I've been trying to work on it. Does it get any better in later chapters?**

 **FOODninja- 321: Eh, I just wound up messing with all of his crap in really subtle ways. He should have known not to start something with the only person in the house who isn't semi-technologically-illiterate. Also, you're welcome!**

 **ThatOnePsycho: Not commenting and I mean that in a actually not commenting because it has something to do with the plot in the future and not in a You're right or a You're wrong and I don't wanna give anything away.**

 **SentenRainen: Yeah, transition chapters are a necessary evil kinda like babies and children. I think I'll stick with SentenRainen, it's less confusing for others that way. I also didn't ever notice that cut off at the end of your review until now, huh, wish I would have asked you about that before. Damn you obliviousness!**

 **Silentstrixe: Heyo! Glad you're enjoying it so far. I'll also admit that I use the exception filters so often I totally forgot to take them into account. Thanks for letting me know how you came across this! Totally makes me a little less confused! (I prefer to remain at least a little confused at all times, helps me mess with others for my own enjoyment)**

 **I would also like to apologize to Misha whose name I accidentally replaced with that of one of my classmates in my last Author** **'s Note.**

 **Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed, and those above for reviewing. Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter or story as a whole whether you liked it or not. Even if it's just a flame cause how else am I supposed to roast my marshmallows? And favorite and/or follow if you think I deserve it. Until next we speak! To Infinity and Beyond!**


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